England's Jonathan Lomas, who won on The European Tour six years ago but is still waiting to repeat that achievement, made a superb start to the ANZ Championship at The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney.
A nine under par 64 translated to 20 points under the modified stableford system and gave Lomas an early five point lead in the event, which is jointly sanctioned for the first time.
The 33 year old, who has moved from Shropshire to Ayrshire since getting married three years ago, had eight birdies worth two points each and an eagle on the 494 yard 17th worth five more.
That came courtesy of a 35 foot chip-in from just short of the green after Lomas had had his only bogey on the day on the difficult 12th.
The format encourages attacking play with only one point deducted for bogeys and three points for double bogeys or worse and Lomas said: "I did change the way I normally play. I was not defending as much and not scared at all of hitting driver at some of the holes."
Lomas, winner o the Chemapol Trophy Czech Open in 1996, had shot 64 in tournament play previously, but his round in the Novotel Perrier Open de France was eight under par, as opposed to his nine under round at The Lakes.
His 20 point haul equalled the record achieved in the 16 years of the International tournament on the American tour played using the same system. The winner this week will also receive an intivation to Colorado to play in that event on the US PGA Tour.
Only last month Lomas was third in the South African Open in his first start of the year and the man who travelled more miles than anybody else in Europe's top 100 last year - he played in 32 events - says his main goal is to taste victory again.
Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin was lying second on 15 points, a round which converts to a 66, while Carl Pettersson of Sweden’s 67 earned him 13 points under the modified stableford system in operation this week. Sharing fourth place were England’s David Lynn and Australian Euan Walters on 12 points.
The Lakes course held up remarkably well after the deluge of earlier in the week - the average rain for the month had fallen in two days.
