France set the clubhouse target as European Tour stars dominated the leaderboard on day one of the ISPS HANDA World Cup of Golf at Kingston Heath Golf Club.
The World Cup returned to the calendar for the first time in three years and in testing conditions in Melbourne, it was the French duo of Victor Dubuisson and Romain Langasque who set the target at two under after recording a round of 70 in the foursomes.
That gave them a one-shot lead over South Korea, Spain and the United States, with just four of the 28 teams under par.
The French duo opened with a birdie as Langasque put the approach to tap-in range and another birdie followed on the ninth as the 2016 Challenge Tour graduate once again gave Dubuisson an easy putt.
Another birdie on the tenth had them three under but a bogey-bogey run on the 11th and 12th set them back before an excellent approach to the 15th set up a fourth birdie of the day.
An impressive up-and-down on the last then saw them set the target from the second group out of the day.
South Korea and the United States both had five holes to play, while the Spaniards had eight holes left to complete.
Byeong-hun An and KT Kim had birdies on the fifth and eighth with a bogey on the seventh while Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker recovered from an opening three-putt bogey with a birdie on the fifth and an excellent Walker hole-out from the bunker on the 13th.
Rafa Cabrera Bello and Jon Rahm had bogeyed the fourth but made the only eagle on the day so far on the eighth to put themselves right in contention.
The Italian team of Francesco Molinari and Matteo Manassero had led the way with some brilliant iron play setting up birdies on the second, fifth and tenth but a triple-bogey eight on the 12th stalled their progress.
The English pair of Andy Sullivan and Chris Wood struggled on the same hole to drop to level par after a double-bogey.
Søren Kjeldsen and Thorbjørn Olesen of Denmark, Chinese pair Ashun Wu and Li Haotong - both European Tour winners this season - big-hitting Belgians Nicolas Colsaerts and Thomas Pieters, and the Austrian team of Bernd Wiesberger and Martin Wiegele were all also at level par playing the back nine.
