Marcus Helligkilde produced a big finish at Wentworth Club to open up a two-shot lead after day one of the BMW PGA Championship.
The Dane birdied his final three holes to sign for a 64 and move to eight under ahead of Scot Richie Ramsay and England's Matt Fitzpatrick in the fourth Rolex Series event of the season.
All 12 members of Europe's Ryder Cup team are teeing it up at DP World Tour HQ this week and Fitzpatrick was the best of them after 18 holes, leading a strong home charge that saw Matthew Baldwin and James Morrison three shots off the lead.
Spanish pair Jorge Campillo and Pablo Larrazábal, Belgian Thomas Detry, Japan's Rikuya Hoshino, Pole Adrian Meronk and Scot Connor Syme were also five under.
But it was Helligkilde who stole the show in Surrey, carding ten birdies en route to matching his lowest DP World Tour round to par.
The 2021 European Challenge Tour Number One had the best result of his DP World Tour career as he finished second at the Korea Championship Presented by Genesis earlier this year but that was his only top ten this season before missed cuts in back-to-back events in the United States ahead of the summer break.
He returned with a top five at the ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics and came into this week 50th in the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex.
Helligkilde did not come into his opening round full of confidence after a poor warm-up but showed no adverse effects despite feeling "everything was just kind of OK".
"I did it by hitting it terrible on the range," he said. "I asked my coach what should I do, and he's like, 'yeah, you're probably going to play great'. So that was what happened.
"Everything was in play from the tee. I was hitting decent shots into the greens and I was holing a lot of putts.
"I've been playing pretty well since I came out after the break and because of some other circumstances, I haven't been able to practise that much. I haven't been playing practice rounds the last few weeks. It kind of takes the pressure off so that's a good thing."
Ramsay was the man to set the early pace as he recovered from a bogey on the third with a birdie on the par-five next and he added another on the eighth after a stunning approach to turn in 34.
He then rattled off a hat-trick with a 20-footer on the tenth, another approach to inside three feet on the 11th and a two-putt gain on the par-five next before he took advantage of the closing par fives with a lay-up on the 17th and an up-and-down on the last.
Helligkilde also bogeyed the third but his response was even more emphatic as he picked up seven shots in nine holes to share the lead.
He got down in two from the fringe on the fourth and then sandwiched a 12-footer on the sixth with a pair of tap-ins on the fifth and seventh.
An approach to 17 feet on the ninth was followed by one to four feet on the 11th and he was six under after getting up and down on the 11th.
A three-putt on the 14th dropped him out of the lead but he left himself 11 feet on the 16th, got up and down on the next and got down in two from the fringe on the last to take control.
Fitzpatrick got off to a fast start, hitting brilliant tee-shots into the par-three second and fifth either side of missing an eagle chance from six feet on the fourth.
Approaches to inside ten feet on the sixth and ninth sandwiched a bogey on the seventh and the 2022 U.S. Open champion holed a lengthy putt on the 11th and got up and down on the 12th before bogeying the 15th but birdieing the last after laying up.
"It was a good day," said Fitzpatrick. "I felt like I played really well, drove the ball really well, just gave myself plenty of chances and putted well. Overall, it was a really solid day.
"I'm here to try to win this week. I'll start focusing on The Ryder Cup once Sunday finishes. This week we're here to play as well as we can and see what we can do."
Fitzpatrick's Ryder Cup team-mates Ludvig Åberg and Tyrrell Hatton were in a group of nine players at four under, with 11 players having to complete their rounds on Friday morning after play was suspended due to darkness.
