Rory McIlroy carded a first-round
63 in the Hong Kong Open to lie one shot off leader Mark Brown from New Zealand.
Northern Ireland's McIlroy fired eight birdies and a bogey to join India's Jeev Milkha Singh in second spot, one stroke ahead of England's Simon Dyson.
Dyson, winner in Hong Kong in 2000, shot a hole in one on the 12th.
Graeme McDowell, looking to close the gap on Martin Kaymer in the Race to Dubai, shot 65 to be four shots off the pace in a group of five players.
Northern Ireland's McDowell was trailing Kaymer by £313,000 going into the European Tour's penultimate tournament.
But with the German skipping the event, which offers a £265,000 top prize, McDowell can steal a march going into next week's Dubai World Championship.
McDowell performed well in Thursday's opening round at the Hong Kong Golf Club to sit in fourth place alongside Irishman Damien McGrane, Wales' Rhys Davies, England's Oliver Wilson and South Korea's Nam Young.
Defending champion Gregory
Bourdy from France finished the day on four under, while one of Europe's Ryder Cup stars, Ian Poulter, was one shot further back on three under.
Dyson was delighted with his early efforts and will be one of the favourites to succeed again, 10 years after winning at the same tournament.
"Having done what I did in 2000, every time I came out here after that people who used to say 'Dyson is fancied out here' and it kind of gave me the mentality that I was," said the world number 78 from York.
"A lot of my good results have been out here. I have got a few seconds and few thirds and I won the Indonesian Open - a joint-sanctioned European and Asian Tour event.
"There is a slight breeze which is nice, the greens are rolling as good as I have ever seen them roll here, so the course is excellent and the weather even better."
Europe's Ryder Cup skipper Colin Montgomerie scored a one-under 69.
