France's Alexander Levy made the ideal start to his bid for a third victory of the season - and second in China - in the BMW Masters on Thursday.
Levy, who won the Volvo China Open in April and the rain-shortened Portugal Masters three weeks ago, carded a flawless opening 65 at a damp Lake Malaren for seven under par.
Starting from the 10th, 24-year-old Levy birdied his first four holes and picked up another shot at the par-three 17th to reach the turn in 31, before further birdies at the second and ninth.
Romain Wattel, Nicolas Colsaerts and Emiliano Grillo are all one shot behind Levy on six under.
Graeme McDowell is two shots behind Levy in fifth place, his 67 featured five birdies and not a single bogey.
"I got here Tuesday morning and haven't really been feeling my best the last couple of days," said McDowell, who was knocked out in the group stage in the defence of his Volvo World Match Play Championship a fortnight ago.
"It's the first sort of long trip of the year for me and the body took a little bit of time to catch up. Thankfully I felt much, much better this morning and the energy level has felt good.
"The golf course is fairly soft due to the rain. It's playing very long (7,600 yards), but the greens are very receptive and you can attack a few pins.
"I've had a lot of yardage in my hand most of the day out there. We counted up, I think I had seven iron shots from outside of 200 yards on this golf course.
"Certainly for a guy like me who doesn't hit it maybe as far as some of the other guys, I have to be precise with my iron play and putt well, and I putted well today. That was one of the keys."
Michael Hoey and Shane Lowry are both two under after shooting 70 with Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley a shot further back.
