Scott Jamieson and Daniel Hillier shared the lead as the first day of the 2023 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters was halted by the weather.
The pair were grateful to be among the early starters at Doha GC, getting in with seven-under-par rounds of 65 before first a sandstorm and then the threat of lightning forced play to be suspended.
Jamieson's fellow Scots Stephen Gallacher, Robert MacIntyre and defending champion Ewen Ferguson completed rounds of 66 to share third place with Spain's Santiago Tarrío.
The leaders both started on the back nine and Jamieson, playing in one of the first groups out at 6am local time, hit the front immediately with a birdie at his first hole, the tenth, and added another three holes later.
He fired four in five holes from the 17th and rounded off a bogey-free day with a seventh birdie at the fifth.
He said: "Delighted with that start. It was pretty solid tee to green and I managed to hole some putts today, which has probably let me down in the last few weeks - certainly been hitting the ball well enough to do better than I have done - but today was a different story.
"It was lovely (being out first). The only problem is it is so humid but you obviously get less wind as you always know you are going to get wind here in the afternoon and the course is a little softer as well so, thankfully, I was able to take advantage of that."
Hillier was slower to hit his stride but opened with six pars before bursting into life with birdies at the 16th and 18th, an eagle at the par-five first and another birdie at the second.
Further gains at the seventh and ninth took him alongside Jamieson and the New Zealander, speaking before the disruption from the weather, said: "It’ll be interesting to see how it goes this afternoon but I’ll be at the hotel kicking up my feet, so happy days.
"You have to battle with the heat this week. A little bit of wind out there made it bearable. I just didn’t do much wrong, had a good stretch through the middle that put me in a good position and kept my foot down from there."
Tarrío finished off his own bogey-free round in style with an approach to two feet at the ninth to set up his sixth birdie.
The Spaniard is secure in the top 116 of the Race to Dubai Rankings in partnership with Rolex, ensuring his presence on tour for another year.
But he admitted: "I never keep calm with myself. Never. Even with a card safe for next year. My problem is in my head, there’s a lot of wind inside there, never mind the golf course.
"I didn’t play my best golf this year, but I’m happy to stay one year more here with the big guys."
Gallacher, the only one of the leading sextet to start on the front nine, birdied three of the first four holes and turned in 31 before adding a sixth and final birdie at the 16th.
MacIntyre finished with back-to-back birdies, helped by an approach to six feet at the ninth, while Ferguson turned in 34 before making his move with a hat-trick of birdies from the first.
Before the stop in play, Finnish pair Kalle Samooja and Sami Välimäki, Sean Crocker, Thriston Lawrence, Andy Sullivan, Pablo Larrazábal and Joshua Grenville-Wood shared seventh place on five under par.
The remaining groups then completed their first rounds on Saturday morning, but none were able to make a leap up to the lop of the leaderboard. The best of the lot was Japan's Rikuya Hoshino, who birdied his final four holes of the opening round to join the pack above on five under.
Behind them is a large group of a further nine players, which includes Rasmus Hojgaard, Aaron Rai, Edoardo Molinari, Jordan Smith, Alejandro Del Rey, Nacho Elvira and Dan Huizing.
The biggest storyline of the week is all about who can use this final tournament in the regular DP World Tour season to keep their Tour cards. Leader Jamieson is currently 119th in the standings, three spots away from securing the final card - which will be taken by the player in 116th on the Race to Dubai at the end of this week.
Fellow Scot Mark Warren is the first player outside of that place at the moment, and carded an opening 70 to sit on two under alongside other players on the bubble, including Ross Fisher (115), Daniel van Tonder (120), Jeunghun Wang (123). One better, with a three under 69, were Mike Lorenzo Vera (111), Alexander Knappe (114).
