Asian Open: The BMW Asian Open saw a jam-packed leaderboard at the conclusion of round one, with seven players - including Ireland's Pater Lawrie and tournament favourite Ernie Els of South Africa - sharing first place after carding opening rounds of five-under-par 67 at the Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club, in China's financial centre of Shanghai.
Lawrie and Els share the first-round lead with Australia's Larry Austin, the French duo of Raphaël Jacquelin and Jean van de Velde, New Zealand's Eddie Lee and Simon Wakefield of England.
Lawrie flourished in the steaming hot conditions at Tomson Shanghai Pudong GC, notching birdies at the first and second holes and another at the ninth in an outward half of 35.
However, better was to come on the back nine which he covered in four-under-par 32 with birdies at the 11th, 13th, 14th and 15th to take a share of the lead.
Lawrie became Ireland's first European Tour rookie of the year in 2003 and followed that with a consistent season last year, but is still searching for a maiden victory.
"It's the number-one goal for me but I'm not getting impatient, not in the slightest," insisted the 31-year-old Dubliner. "Trying to get yourself in position to win is the hard thing."
Damien McGrane and Paul McGinley are well off the pace after opening rounds of 74 and 75, respectively.
Els fired six birdies and one bogey to join the other players at the top of the leaderboard.
Colin Montgomerie needed to birdie two of his last three holes just to post a one-over-par 73, while Nick Faldo had 16 pars, one birdie and one bogey in a 72.
Luke Donald, third on his Masters debut earlier this month, returned a 70 while Ryder Cup team-mate Paul Casey recorded a roller-coaster 73 with four birdies and five bogeys.
Els has been working on changes to his posture since a hugely disappointing display at the US Masters earlier this month, and insists it is still a work in progress despite finishing sixth in Beijing last week.
"I still look at the pictures David Leadbetter sent me and I spoke to him on the phone so we are on the same page," said the world number three.
"I know when I'm doing it right, the ball just feels right off the club face and goes in the right direction and I did that for most of the day today."
Els birdied the first two holes and added another from 30 feet at the sixth before his only bogey on the seventh, a poor drive meaning he could only find a greenside bunker with his approach.
The South African was quickly back on track however, a superb approach to the par-three eighth - where Peter O'Malley had recorded a hole-in-one 20 minutes earlier - setting up an easy birdie.
Els birdied the ninth for an outward half of 32 and narrowly failed at the next three before pitching to six feet on the 13th to claim his sixth birdie of the day.
