Matteo Manassero was off to a good start in the Open de Andalucía Costa del Sol as he bids to grab a second trip to the Masters Tournament before his 19th birthday.
Birdies at three of his first seven holes put the young Italian star into the joint lead with Spaniard Eduardo de la Riva and France's Benjamin Hebert at Aloha near Marbella.
Manassero played at Augusta National two years ago as the youngest-ever British Amateur Champion and finished an impressive 36th.
He is now a two-time European Tour winner and a third victory could help him back into the Official World Golf Ranking's top 50 just in time to earn an invitation to the opening Major of the season on April 5-8.
Robert Rock, conqueror of Tiger Woods in Abu Dhabi in January, has the same aim - he is currently 56th on the OWGR and Manassero 63rd - and they were paired together in the opening two rounds of the first Tour event on European soil this year.
Rock was going well too, picking up strokes on the 12th and 16th after they began on the inward half.
Third member of the group was tournament host Miguel Angel Jiménez and he was one under after seven.
The three Major Champions in the field – Rich Beem, Michael Campbell and Mike Weir – all had afternoon tee times.
Manassero went to four under on the 448 yard 18th and turned in 32.
Although De la Riva bogeyed the same hole he then started the front nine with a hat-trick of birdies to lead by one on five under.
Rock was still two under, while Jiménez slipped back to level par.
With three more birdies in four holes from the third Manassero reached seven under and needed to pick up only one more shot to equal the course record.
He was two in front of Riva, in with a 67, and South African Darren Fichardt, while Jiménez matched all three birdies of Manassero to burst to three under and joint seventh spot.
