Matteo Manassero, still only 18 years old, equalled the Aloha course record with an eight under par 64 as the Open de Andalucía Costa del Sol began.
The Italian had nine birdies and a bogey to open up an early three stroke lead over South African Open champion Hennie Otto and home player Eduardo de la Riva.
England's Robert Rock, conqueror of Tiger Woods in Abu Dhabi in January, and tournament host Miguel Angel Jiménez were two strokes further back.
It was also on Spanish soil that Manassero became The European Tour's youngest-ever winner two years ago.
"This is quite similar to Castellon - a little bit more hilly maybe," he said.
"You need to put the ball in play and then do well around the greens. It's a course that suits me pretty well."
Manassero is currently 63rd in the Official World Golf Ranking and still has a chance to climb into the top 50 in time for next month's Masters Tournament at Augusta National.
He was there in 2010 as British Amateur Champion and did brilliantly well to finish 36th.
The Verona teenager already has two European Tour victories to name - he beat Rory McIlroy in last April's Maybank Malaysian Open - and he showed his class in the way he hit back from his lone bogey at the seventh, his 16th.
Manassero made an 18 foot putt on the next and then pitched to seven feet at the 343 yard ninth, one of seven par fours under 400 yards.
Rock, 56th on the OWGR, also has the Masters Tournament as his target. A win on Sunday would lift him into the top 50, but there is also next week's Trophée Hassan II in Morocco before the cut-off.
Former Ryder Cup hero Phillip Price, now 45, birdied five of his first seven holes to be in a share of second spot, but he then bogeyed the short 17th and double-bogeyed the 18th.
Price kept his European Tour card by the skin of his teeth last season, finishing in the 118th and last exempt place by little more than €1,000.
