Lee Slattery continued his recent good form by leading the home charge as the British Masters supported by Sky Sports got under way for the first time in seven years at Woburn.
The tournament is back on the The European Tour International Schedule for the first time since 2008 and began in glorious conditions with Slattery setting the early pace.
The Englishman won the M2M Russian Open last month and followed that up by finishing tied second at the KLM Open the following week.
A top 30 finish followed at the Porsche European Open and while the 37 year old endured a disappointing week at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, he found his scoring touch again to turn in 31 on Thursday morning.
He began with three pars but picked up back-to-back birdies on the fourth and fifth holes, and another followed on the seventh before a further gain on the ninth moved him to the top of the pile.
Alexander Levy, who will be defending his Portugal Masters title next week, made a flying start with birdies on the 11th and 12th holes and an eagle on the 15th, but a wild tee shot on the 18th found the trees and he dropped back into the group at three under.
Former World Number One Luke Donald was also at that mark after consecutive birdies at the first and second moved him to three under after 11 holes while fellow Englishman Andy Sullivan was also three under through 12 holes after four birdies and a bogey.
Marc Warren completed the group a shot back after three birdies in his opening ten holes.
Paraguay's Fabrizio Zanotti was two under through 11 holes with David Horsey and Rikard Karlberg also two shots back of the lead just after the turn.
Sam Hutsby, Y E Yang, Julien Quesne and Mikael Lundberg were also two under with tournament host Ian Poulter a shot further back after a topsy-turvy opening.
Bogeys at the 14th and 15th had dropped him back to level par after early gains but a wonderful putt on the 17th got him back into red numbers much to the delight of the home crowd.
