Marcus Fraser set the early pace as The Race to Dubai entered its final stages at Jumeirah Golf Estates on Thursday.
The season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai got under way on the Earth Course with seven players still in the hunt to be crowned Europe's number one.
Rory McIlroy leads the way with Danny Willett, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace and Byeong-hun An all in with a chance of taking the prize but, with those players among the very late starters in round one, it was left to Fraser to make the early running.
The consistent Australian has missed just four cuts this season and, coming off the back of a tie for 13th at the BMW Masters, he picked up six shots in his first 11 holes.
The 37 year old opened with a par but three consecutive birdies followed and after picking up another shot on the seventh, he turned in 32. Back-to-back birdies on the tenth and 11th then got him to six under, three shots clear of Luke Donald and Alejandro Cañizares.
The former World Number One is looking for a first European Tour win in three years and got off to a flying start with gains on his first three holes.
Spaniard Cañizares had made it into the tournament as a reserve at 62nd in The Race to Dubai and began with a bogey after going out in the first pairing with Stephen Gallacher.
Eight straight pars followed to turn in 37 but he picked up shots on the tenth, 12th, 13th and 14th to catapult himself up the leaderboard.
There was then a large group at two under with Jamie Donaldson having dropped a shot at the eighth fall back into that group.
Richie Ramsay had also been three under before falling back alongside Tyrrell Hatton, Pablo Larrazábal, Alexander Levy, Francesco Molinari, Ian Poulter, Gary Stal and Fabrizio Zanotti.
