Matthieu Pavon went one better than last year as a 63 handed him a one-shot lead after the opening round of the acciona Open de España presented by Madrid.
Last season's Thursday 64 helped the Frenchman finish second behind Jon Rahm and he will be hoping to go one better again on Sunday as he looks for a first DP World Tour title at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid.
His eight under score left him one clear of Dutchman Wil Besseling and two ahead of countryman Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Portuguese Pedro Figueiredo and England's Eddie Pepperell, all of whom are looking for a strong end to the season to maintain their playing privileges.
Defending champion Rahm - looking for a fourth win in the last five editions of this event - was four shots off the lead after a 67.
A two-time winner on the Alps Tour, Pavon has been a picture of consistency since finishing second three times on the European Challenge Tour in 2016 to earn his card, with last season's second place in Spain the third of his DP World Tour career.
He already has five top tens on Tour this season - including at last week's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship - but revealed a second-placed finish on home soil at the Open d'Arcachon during Ryder Cup week could be the key to him potentially breaking his duck on Sunday.
"The confidence is back from a small tournament I played in France," he said. "That was a local tournament and I changed my driver, changed my putter, kind of freshened everything a little bit and I finished second over there.
"I brought that to the Dunhill and finished sixth so lots of positives from the last three weeks and I'm trying to just build on it.
"Last year I had a great finish here so I just kept trying to bring back all the souvenirs from that a little bit and it really helped me today.
"I feel pretty good. I hit a lot of great shots and from tee to green I was really solid. The putter was also great and overall I was amazed by the play I had today."
Pavon got started with a 31-foot putt on the first and then made a two-putt gain on the par-five fourth before holing from the fringe on the sixth and putting his tee-shot to five feet on the ninth to turn in 32.
A poor tee-shot produced his only bogey of the day on the tenth but he sandwiched a stunning second to seven feet at the 14th which brought an eagle with excellent approaches into the 12th and 15th.
A tee-shot to three feet on the par-three 17th then resulted in a seventh birdie of the day before he hit the pin with a bunker shot on the last as he sealed a closing par.
Besseling turned in 32 from the tenth with three birdies and while he recovered from a bogey on the first with another gain, he did not look a likely candidate to trouble the leader.
A two-putt birdie on the fourth kick-started his round, however, and he followed that with a long putt on the fifth, a smart approach on the sixth and another two-putt gain on the seventh to fly up the leaderboard.
"I have to say from last week to this week it has been a massive improvement and we always try to make small steps but I guess this was kind of a bigger one," said Besseling.
"I have had this before in previous years coming from Dunhill and struggling in the wind and the rain and the cold, and then coming here I see the lines. I mean visually it is so different, obviously the weather as well, so I feel right at home here and it has showed in the past and again today.
"After the last month, this year hasn’t been great at all but we always try. Somewhere deep in my mind I know I am a really good player and I think I showed that today."
Pepperell had an eagle and a bogey in his 65 with five birdies, while Lorenzo-Vera and Figueiredo each dropped a single shot.
Englishmen Ross Fisher and Nathan Kimsey, South Africans Deon Germishuys and Zander Lombard, Spaniard Victor Garcia Broto, Scot Calum Hill, Frenchman Romain Langasque, Dutchman Joost Luiten, Finn Tapio Pulkkanen, India's Shubhankar Sharma and German Marcel Siem were all three shots off the lead.
