Oliver Fisher and Joakim Lagergren carded rounds of 68 to set the clubhouse target on day one of the Trophée Hassan II at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam.
Perfect conditions greeted the players but the narrow, tree-lined layout in Rabat always poses a tough test and the duo were the only members of the morning wave to get to four under.
Canadian Austin Connelly and China's Ashun Wu were then at three under, a shot clear of Spaniards Nacho Elvira and Adrian Otaegui, Scot Stephen Gallacher, German Maximilian Kieffer and England's Callum Shinkwin.
Englishman Fisher won the Czech Open in 2011 but his runner-up finish at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters was his best finish since 2014 and one of just three made cuts in nine events so far this term.
Swede Lagergren finished in a tie for second in Qatar in 2017 for his best European Tour finish and he too will be glad to find some form after missing five cuts in eight events so far this campaign.
Gallacher was the first man to make a move as he birdied the third and fourth and, after a bogey on the fifth, picked up shots on the sixth and eighth to turn in 33.
The three-time European Tour winner also made a gain on the 11th to get to four under but he was joined by Lagergren, who reached the turn in 32 with birdies on the first, third, fifth and ninth - courtesy of a monster putt.
When Gallacher dropped a shot on the 13th, Lagergren led on his own and a birdie on the 11th gave him a two-shot lead.
A dropped shot on the 13th saw his lead cut and he soon had Fisher for company as the 29 year old set the target in the clubhouse, adding a closing birdie to shots picked up on the eighth, tenth and 12th.
Wu had birdied the fourth and sixth but dropped a shot on the eighth to turn in 35. An eagle on the 12th catapulted him up the leaderboard but he bogeyed the next before making a gain on the 15th.
Connelly made a fast start with birdies on the 11th, 15th and 16th but slipped back as he dropped shots on the 17th and first before regaining them on the fourth and eighth.
Gallacher dropped a shot on the 16th to drop to two under.
Otaegui went birdie-bogey from the seventh and then picked up three shots in four holes from the 12th before bogeying the last, while countryman Elvira started bogey-birdie and dropped another shot on the second before making gains on the fourth, fifth and eighth.
Shinkwin turned in level par with birdies on the first and eighth and bogeys on the fourth and sixth before eagling the 12th, while Kieffer was one over after ten holes but birdied the fifth, seventh and ninth.
South Africans Darren Fichardt and Richard Sterne, Australian pair Wade Ormsby and Jason Scrivener, American Sean Crocker and England's Aaron Rai were one under.
