Hideto Tanihara fired an opening 69 to set the very early clubhouse target on day one of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
The Japanese is making just his second appearance at Jumeirah Golf Estates after five top tens this season and he moved to three under and the top of a congested leaderboard at the eighth Rolex Series event of the season.
South African Dean Burmester, Dutchman Joost Luiten and England's Danny Willett were also three under with three holes to play, while another Englishman in Tom Lewis also shared the lead after 14 holes.
There was then a group of eight players a shot off the lead, with 24 in total under par.
Remaining Race to Dubai contenders Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood were due out in the final group of the day at 12.40.
Tanihara birdied the first and third and when he added another gain on the seventh he was in a share of the lead with early pace-setter Robert Rock.
That group at the top of the leaderboard swelled to six but Tanihara broke a run of six pars with a birdie on the 14th to break out of the pack.
A bogey on the 17th dropped him back into a five-way tie and he did well to save par on the last.
It is a testament to Luiten's quality that he managed to make the top 60 on the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex despite missing five months of the season as he underwent wrist surgery.
He birdied the first, second and tenth, while playing partner Burmester sandwiched a bogey on the third with birdies on the first, second, seventh and eighth.
Willett birdied the second but gave the shot back on the fourth before putting his approach to tap-in range on the sixth. Birdies on the eighth and tenth would follow and while he dropped a shot on the 13th, he picked it straight back up on the next.
Lewis had birdies on the first, tenth, 12th and 14th with a bogey on the 13th.
Belgian duo Thomas Detry and Thomas Pieters, Ireland's Paul Dunne, South African Dylan Frittelli, Frenchman Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Australian Wade Ormsby, Spaniard Adrian Otaegui and India's Shubhankar Sharma - who is looking to secure the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award - were all a shot off the lead.
