Defending champion Thomas Pieters overcame jet-lag to fire an excellent 67 and put himself right in contention on day one of the D+D REAL Czech Masters.
The Belgian made the 6000-mile trip from Rio de Janeiro to make his first European Tour defence after finishing an impressive fourth at the Olympic Men's Golf Competition on Sunday.
He showed no ill-effects as he raced into a two-shot lead with two holes to play but a double-bogey on the eighth after a raged tee-shot saw him drop back to five under.
That was still good enough for a share of the lead until England's Ryan Evans - playing in the final group of the day - birdied the last to sign for an opening 66.
"I'm a little disappointed almost, it was such a poor finish," he said. "I had it going and I hit it great today, I just made a couple of bad swings and a couple of bad putts at the end but all in all pretty good.
"It's nice to come back and see your name up there on the boards and see some pictures of some good memories.
"I'm just trying to keep my eyes open, I'm a little jet-lagged from last week but I'm enjoying it. The weather is perfect so this is what you want to be doing on a Thursday morning.
"I'm satisfied with where my game is at but last week was a little bit of a disappointment. Finishing fourth at the Olympics is quite an achievement as well though so I'm also pretty pleased."
It's nice to come back and see your name up there on the boards and see some pictures of some good memories - Thomas Pieters
Peter Hanson was also at five under after he made an unblemished start to his week.
The Swede has made just one of his last five cuts but achieved a tie for sixth at the Volvo China Open in May and feels his game is starting to move in the right direction.
"I'm very happy with my game, it felt solid today," he said. "It's nice to get out there after quite a long break and get some really nice conditions.
"I've been working on my game over the last week so it's nice to get off to a good start and these conditions help to know where you're at with your ball-striking and so on.
"I like Prague and I like the Czech Republic. Obviously winning in 2010 just before The Ryder Cup was an amazing experience for me so it's always nice to come back to a country where you've done well.
"I like this golf course too, even though it's not where I won, it's a beautiful track and the greens are running this morning so it's all good."
