Lucas Herbert and Brett Rankin fired rounds of 67 to share the lead as home favourites dominated day one of the Australian PGA Championship.
Perfect conditions greeted the field at RACV Royal Pines Resort and Australians Herbert and Rankin led the way at five under, a shot clear of countrymen Nick Cullen, Min Woo Lee, Wade Ormsby and Travis Smyth, and New Zealander Ryan Chisnall.
Australians and Kiwis then took the top 14 places on the leaderboard, much to the delight of the healthy local crowds enjoying the sun on the stunning Gold Coast.
Herbert finished in the top ten at the 2018 edition of this event in a brilliant debut season on the European Tour and is making his first appearance on the 2020 Race to Dubai.
He last teed it up on the European Tour at the Amundi Open de France and while he has been suffering with a wrist injury, he was happy with his day's work as he birdied three of his last four holes.
"Good start," he said. "I’ve either missed the cut or finished top ten here so it’s got to go either way.
"I struggled last year, it’s good to start the way I have, especially after not playing a lot of golf recently.
"Next year I’ll change it up and have bigger breaks in between events so I can get home, maybe only play three or four in a row.
"Try and enjoy being out there and getting the balance right between having some drinks one night and then concentrate and get on the focus of golf. You can’t just be golf, golf, golf 24/7, you’ve got to concentrate when you need to and switch off when you need to."
Herbert made a fast start from the tenth as he went birdie-birdie-eagle but he gave the bulk of those gains back by the turn as he dropped shots on the 13th, 14th and last.
He bounced back with a gain on the first and picked up further shots on the sixth and eighth before holing a monster putt on the ninth to take the lead.
Rankin - playing in just his 12th European Tour event - birdied the 11th and 12th and while he dropped a shot on the 14th, he made gains on the first, third and seventh before hitting a stunner into the par five ninth.
"It was 12 months ago I needed a good week here just to keep my card," he said.
"Things have just come together. I’m just in a good space technically, I feel like I can work the ball both ways at will at the moment and I’m just starting to get the putter going again so it’s been a really consistent year. I’m really happy with the year."
Ormsby - the 2018 UBS Hong Kong Open champion - was a picture of consistency, producing some dialled in iron play in a bogey free effort, while Lee recovered from two early bogeys with six birdies to sit alongside him.
In the morning, Smyth and Chisnall each dropped just a single shot in their rounds of 68, while Cullen made six birdies and two bogeys.
Kiwis Ryan Fox, Harry Bateman, David Smail and Nick Voke were at three under alongside Australians Andrew Dodt, Jason Norris and Michael Wright.
