Scotland's Russell Knox got off to a flying start in the defence of his title in the first round of the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
Knox was 20 under par in winning his first European Tour title last year and carried on where he left off on Thursday as he looked to become only the second player after Tiger Woods to retain a World Golf Championships title.
Starting on the back nine at Sheshan International, Knox opened with four straight pars before firing birdies on the next four holes to move within a shot of the early lead shared by Sweden's Rikard Karlberg and the American pair of Rickie Fowler and Daniel Berger.
Fowler, who was playing alongside Knox, had covered the back nine in 31, while Berger had gone to the turn in 32 before picking up another shot on the second.
Karlberg was off to an even better start, the world number 87 carding birdies on the first four holes and another on the seventh.
England's Richard Bland, who was making his debut in a WGC event after enjoying the best season of his long career, was alongside Knox and Bill Haas on four under, with England's Paul Casey and Chris Wood a shot further back.
World number three Rory McIlroy had yet to card a single birdie in his first seven holes, the four-time major winner chasing at least one win from his last three events to win the Race to Dubai for the third year running.
McIlroy is more than a million points behind Masters champion Danny Willett, who has a lead of more than 400,000 points over Henrik Stenson, but Willett found himself at the wrong end of the leaderboard after a nightmare start.
Three bogeys and a double bogey in the space of four holes took Willett to the turn in 41 and he remained 77th in the 78-man field despite a first birdie of the day on the par-five second.
Source: PA
