Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen shares the first-round lead with Brandon Robinson-Thompson at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
Neergard-Petersen recovered from an opening bogey to post a sensational 66 on Thursday.
The 25-year-old Dane has made a bright start to the new campaign following a stunning 2024 in which he won three times on the HotelPlanner Tour to earn automatic promotion to the DP World Tour.
And despite an early blip in windy conditions at Doha Golf Club, where he dropped a shot at the 1st hole after missing his 14-foot par putt, Neergaard-Petersen continued his fine recent form as he made seven birdies and no bogeys over the next 17 holes to set the early clubhouse target at six under par.
Englishman Robinson-Thompson then caught Neergaard-Petersen at the summit late in the afternoon after draining his 60-foot birdie putt on the 8th – his penultimate hole.
Robinson-Thompson, who smashed the course record as he opened with a 61 in Bahrain last week, had a chance to hold the outright first-round lead for the second week in a row but was unable to make his birdie putt from 10 feet on the 9th and had to settle for a share.
Italy’s Andrea Pavan and England’s Sam Bairstow were in a tie for third one shot behind the co-leaders after shooting 67s.
Frenchman Pierre Pineau and Armenia’s Jean Bekirian were another shot back with two holes still to complete when play was suspended at 5:12pm local time due to darkness. They will return early in the morning when round one restarts at 7am.
South Africa’s Darren Fichardt shot a 68 with five birdies and a bogey to share fifth position.
Neergaard-Petersen began the tournament with a bogey but bounced back immediately at the 2nd, holing from eight feet for a birdie.
He repeated the trick at the 4th from a similar distance before picking up further shots on the 7th and 9th as he reached the turn in 33.
Neergaard-Petersen then made it back-to-back birdies from tap-in range at the 10th to get to four under.
A 30-foot birdie followed on the 13th before another gain at the 14th took Neergaard-Petersen to six under.
