Eddie Pepperell and Matt Wallace fired rounds of 64 to take a one-shot clubhouse lead on the first day of the Portugal Masters at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course.
The duo are both enjoying excellent seasons on the European Tour, sitting in the top 20 of the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex with four wins between them.
That form got them both in the mix to make the European Team for next week's Ryder Cup and while neither of them will be teeing it up Le Golf National, they were not showing any signs of a hangover after missing out.
Wallace made an eagle and five birdies with two chip-ins as he got to seven under and Pepperell joined him at that mark with seven birdies of his own as they both went bogey-free.
China's Li Haotong was at six under, a shot clear of 2017 Masters Tournament champion Sergio Garcia, Finnish duo Kim Koivu and Mikko Korhonen, Italian Renato Paratore, England's Gian-Marco Petrozzi, Frenchman Adrien Saddier and Australia's Jason Scrivener.
Paratore made gains on the tenth, 12th, 14th, 15th and 18th to lead at the turn and while he dropped a shot on the first, a birdie on the second put him back into a five-way tie for the lead.
Li was among those to take a share of top spot, starting birdie-birdie-birdie but dropping a shot on the 14th before eagling the par four 15th and making a gain on the 17th.
Paratore birdied the fourth to get to six under and he was joined there by Wallace who made a hat-trick of birdies from the 18th.
The 28 year old had chipped in for eagle on the 12th and added a birdie at the 15th before his trio of gains that ended with another chip-in on the second.
Li hit a huge drive down the fourth and a flick into the green set up a birdie to get him to six under before Korhonen then joined the lead, adding an eagle on the par four second to birdies on the tenth, 11th, 14th and 15th.
Back-to-back bogeys on the sixth and seventh dropped Paratore to four under and while he recovered on the eighth, that was two off the lead.
That was because Li found the green on the par five fifth in two and made his birdie to get to seven under.
Pepperell had been quietly going about his business, turning in 33 with birdies on the 14th, 15th and 17th, and when he holed a long putt on the fourth to add to gains on the first and second he was just a shot off the lead.
Wallace then joined Li at the top as he followed the 23 year old in making the most of the par five fifth, with Pepperell also following suit for a three-way tie.
Korhonen then became the latest player to make the most of the fifth but the four-way tie at the top was brief as he bogeyed his next two.
Li went over the back of the ninth to drop a shot and it was the English duo who led the way from the morning wave.
Spaniard Garcia birdied the tenth, 12th, 14th and second to edge his way up the leaderboard but he three-putted from the fringe on the third. Back-to-back birdies on the fifth and sixth were followed by a bogey on the seventh but a stunning tee-shot on the par three eighth had him back within two.
Koivu was bogey-free in his 66, with Scrivener dropping a single shot, Petrozzi registering one bogey and an eagle, and Saddier picking up four shots in his last four holes with the help of an eagle on the 17th.
Spanish pair Alejandro Cañizares and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño were at four under alongside Australian Nick Cullen and South Korea's Soomin Lee.
