A birdie on the last gave Russell Henley the lead after the first round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Maui.
South Korea's Bae Sang-moon had set the early pace and looked set to at least hold a share of the lead at the end of play but two birdies in his last three holes saw Henley fire an eight-under-par 65 and move ahead at the first PGA Tour event of 2015.
The tournament is only open to Tour winners from last season and the quality shone through with only two players out of the 34-man field recording an over-par round.
Henley's round was helped by a hot putter and he began as he meant to go on with a 21-footer for birdie on the first.
He followed that with birdies on three, five and six, and made it three in a row with a 31-foot putt on the seventh to reach the turn in 31.
Lengthy putts followed on 12 and 16 to pick up further shots before he took the lead outright with a birdie on the 663-yard par-five last and the 25-year-old admitted his putting was key.
"Today was good," Henley told Sky Sports 4. "Not every day you're going to hit the putts right where you want to and read them correctly, but I did that today.
"I like Bermuda grass, I've putted well on Bermuda grass, both my wins have come on Bermuda grass.
"We had a good wind today and the course is firming up and second year here I definitely feel a lot more comfortable."
Bae was the best man on the course on the front nine and, after picking up a shot on two, had a run of five birdies in a row from four to eight to get to the turn in 30.
He dropped his only shot of the day on the 11th but back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15 saw him finish with a 66.
Early FedEx Cup leader Robert Streb was among a group of five players on six under alongside Ryder Cup stars Patrick Reed and Jimmy Walker, Scott Stallings and Ben Martin.
Defending champion Zach Johnson was a further shot back as were Matt Kuchar, Chris Kirk and Australian John Senden.
Kevin Stadler and Ben Crane were the only players to fire over par but a pair of opening 74s meant that they only find themselves nine back of the leader.
