Daan Huizing made the most of his local knowledge to set the clubhouse target on day one of the inaugural NBO Oman Open.
Al Mouj Golf is hosting a European Tour event for the first time this week but five Challenge Tour events have been held at the Muscat layout, with Huizing playing four of them and finishing in the top ten at the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final in November.
That familiarity with the course and the members earned the Dutchman an invite this week and he made the most of it on Thursday, posting a six under par 66 to lead by one shot from England's Andy Sullivan.
Australian Sam Brazel, Welshman Oliver Farr, France's Matthieu Pavon and Paraguayan Fabrizio Zanotti were at four under.
Huizing lost his card in 2014 after graduating from the Challenge Tour and has played just 11 European Tour events since but looked very much at home in the Middle East.
He made a hat-trick of gains from the seventh and had a two-shot lead when he added further birdies on the 12th, 15th and 16th. He dropped a shot on the next but picked it straight back up on the last.
A finish of 62nd on last season's Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex was disappointing by Sullivan's very high standards but he has found some form in 2018 and brought that with him to Muscat.
The Ryder Cup star birdied the 12th but dropped shots on the 16th and 17th and needed a gain on the last to turn in level par.
He then came to life on the front nine, making a hat-trick of gains from the second, adding another on the sixth courtesy of a monster putt, and when he rolled in a 12-footer on the ninth, he had second spot to himself.
Pavon finished in a tie for third here at the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final in 2016 as he graduated from the Challenge Tour and enjoyed a successful rookie season last term, finishing 49th on the Race to Dubai.
Starting on the tenth, he birdied his opener, the 12th, 17th, second and third but dropped a shot on the fourth.
Zanotti, a two-time European Tour winner, was bogey-free in his round with birdies on the 12th, second, sixth and seventh.
Brazel was also bogey-free and the 2017 UBS Hong Kong Open champion made birdies on the fifth, 12th, 14th and 15th.
Farr made it a hat-trick of blemish-free rounds at four under as the two-time Challenge Tour graduate made gains on the fourth, 11th, 12th and 16th.
Chilean Felipe Aguilar, Frenchman Julien Guerrier, Spaniard Adrian Otaegui and England's Matt Wallace were then all three shots off the lead.
