Local favourite Brett Rumford made home advantage count to set the clubhouse target on day one of the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth.
Perth native Rumford set the early pace, recording just a single bogey in an opening 66, but he had plenty of local competition on a congested leaderboard.
Fellow Western Australians Daniel Fox and Jason Scrivener were just a single shot back at five under alongside countryman Adam Blyth, Englishman Robert Dinwiddie and German Sebastian Heisele.
Lake Karrinyup Country was playing host to golfing history, with an innovative format seeing the top 24 players after 54 holes making it through to a six-hole match play format on Sunday.
On day one the focus was simply to get into the mix for the weekend, however, and Rumford was the man to make the move as he continued his good start to the season after losing his playing privileges in 2016.
The five-time European Tour winner began the campaign by finishing fifth at the Australian PGA Championship and was looking to continue his good form in his homeland, with three top 20 finishes in the last three stagings of this event.
The 39 year old made birdies on the tenth, 11th, 14th and 15th - with a single dropped shot on the 13th - to turn in 33 before making further gains on the first and fourth.
An approach to eight feet on the seventh then brought a seventh birdie of the day and a one-shot lead.
Dinwiddie finished two positions above Rumford in the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex last season but he also lost his card and like the leader was looking for a good start to 2017.
He recovered from an opening bogey with birdies on the third, sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth and back-to-back gains on the 14th and 15th had him in the lead before he dropped a shot on the next.
Scrivener - from nearby Mandurah - was bogey-free in his opening round with birdies on the 11th, first and third and an eagle on the par five seventh.
The 27 year old has been getting some short-game tips from Rumford in the build-up to this event and the leader revealed after his round that he was more than happy to help.
"I've dedicated a lot of my life to the short game so I just like helping people - I would never charge them!" he said. "I'm old school like that. I get a kick out of showing someone a little tip and then you see the look on their face when something comes off."
Fox was also blemish-free with birdies on the 14th, 15th, first, third and fourth, while Blyth and Heisele each had a single bogey on their cards.
Dimitrios Papadatos had held the early lead as he turned in 31 from the tenth but three bogeys on the front nine saw him finish at four under alongside fellow Australian Steven Jeffress, Spaniard Carlos Pigem and Thai Pavit Tangkamolprasert, who had two eagles on his card.
There were then 12 players in the clubhouse in the group at three under including Louis Oosthuizen, who was a winner at Lake Karrinyup last season.
