Robert Allenby's decision to rejoin the European Tour this season paid early dividends as he took a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the Dubai World Championship.
The Australian plundered eight birdies and one bogey on the Greg Norman-designed Earth Course in an excellent seven-under 65 to move ahead of Lee Westwood, Camilo Villegas and Chris Wood.
"I hit the ball very well tee to green and, overall, just sort of cruised around," Allenby said.
"I've always admired Greg Norman and all of the golf courses I've played that have been his, I've always loved them. I think it's a great design."
Fellow Aussie Adam Scott also started well with a four-under 68 seeing him in a tie for fifth place while Geoff Ogilvy holds a share of 14th after a two-under 70.
Despite Allenby's lead, all the talk was about Westwood and Rory McIlroy, who are going head-to-head for the Order of Merit.
Westwood, more than 114,000 pounds behind entering the final lap, began the tournament with a six-under 66 while McIlroy matched his rival's back nine 32, but had made the slower start and with a 68 is in a tie for fifth.
If they maintain their current positions it will be Westwood, champion in 2000, who just comes out on top on Sunday.
It looks set to go right to the wire, however, and the final putt could yet be worth 1.6 million pounds.
McIlroy, trying to become the youngest money list winner since Seve Ballesteros in 1976, could easily have said - as Westwood did - that their face-to-face had not bothered him.
But he did not try to duck the issue.
"I didn't think I would find it as difficult as I did to be honest," he said.
"But that's the way I found it and I thought I dealt pretty well with it."
"Lee's been around a lot longer than me. You want to try and concentrate on the tournament, but at the same time you're seeing what he's doing."
"It will be nice not to play with him tomorrow, just to concentrate fully on my own score and on my own game."
"I think it will be good for both of us not to play together. We're both just trying to win the Dubai World Championship and whatever happens after that then so be it."
"Today almost felt like a last group final round sort of thing. We're the top two in the Race to Dubai and it's hard to get away from that."
"I think the intensity levels have been raised a little but just because there's so much to play for, especially to be the first person to become the champion of the Race to Dubai."
"I think it will be a great honour to put my name on that trophy."
Westwood, however, took a totally different stance when asked if it felt like a special Thursday.
"No it didn't," said the 36-year-old, who has finished in the Order of Merit top three on no fewer than five occasions in his career.
"There's a long way to go and a lot of water to go under the bridge before we get to Sunday."
"You're going to have to play well to get into contention on Sunday, so to be bothered about anything on the first tee on a Thursday that concerns anything other than trying to hit it down the middle and