Thomas Pieters shot a first-round 67 and leads the Omega Desert Dubai Classic on the European Tour.
David Lipsky shot a 68 and sits alone in second.
There are 12 players tied at 3 under, two shots off the lead.
Defending champ Bryson DeChambeau is among four golfers who shot a 2-under 70.
The skies were hazy for part the day around Emirates Golf Club because of a steady wind, which made conditions difficult. Just 29 golfers broke par in the first round, including Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen.
Omega Dubai Desert Classic: Leaderboard
“I’ve been working on my putting real hard and I just hope to see some progress,” Pieters told europeantour.com. “I saw that today, hopefully we can keep it up. I know I’m hitting the ball quite nice and I’m just looking forward to the next three days.
“It’s always a bit scary starting out, you don’t know what to expect even though you’ve put the work in – that competitive mindset sometimes takes a while to kick in. But I think today was one of my better rounds of the year.”
