Marc Warren continued his encouraging recent form to set the clubhouse target on day one of the Maybank Championship at Saujana Golf and Country Club.
The Scot is a three-time winner on the European Tour but looked set for a struggle to keep his playing privileges last season before a fifth-placed finish at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship set up an impressive end to the campaign.
He missed the cut at last week's Omega Dubai Desert Classic but a brilliant 63 on Thursday saw him get to nine under and open up a two-shot lead in Malaysia.
Thai teenager Phachara Khongwatmai was his nearest challenger, a shot clear of Masters Tournament champion Danny Willett, American Peter Uihlein and local favourite Arie Irawan.
Warren got off to a quick start, birdieing the first, and he added further gains on the third, fourth and sixth before an eagle on the par five eighth saw him jump out into the lead.
He put his tee-shot on the par three 12th to ten feet for another birdie and when he holed from ten feet on the 14th, he looked to be in total control.
Khongwatmai is one of the hottest young talents in Asia, however, and he started making birdies to reel the leader in.
The 17 year old became the youngest ever winner of a professional tournament when he won the Singha Hua Hin Open on the ASEAN PGA Tour at the age of just 14 in 2013, and showed no nerves in just his seventh European Tour event.
He made birdies on the 13th, 15th, 16th and 18th to turn in 32 before putts of eight, 20 and eight feet on the fourth, fifth and sixth catapulted him up the leaderboard.
Another gain on the eighth gave him a share of the lead but he bogeyed his final hole and a Warren birdie on the 17th made the lead two shots.
Willett flew out of the blocks with birdies on the tenth and 11th and another brace on the 18th and first kept him in touch with the leading pack. An approach to two feet then got him to five under before he made another gain on the seventh in a bogey-free 66.
Uihlein has three top 20s in his five events so far this season and he continued his good form with birdies on the tenth, 11th, 13th, 17th, fifth and eighth.
Irawan started on the back nine and he made five straight pars before coming to life from the 15th, reeling off five birdies in a row before adding another on the fourth.
South Korea's Soomin Lee was bogey-free in a 67 to get to five under, a shot clear of Gavin Green, Robert Karlsson, K.T. Kim, Richard T Lee, Shubhankar Sharma and Romain Wattel.
