Adam Scott has started with a three-under-par 69 but is five shots off the lead after the opening round of the WGC-HSBC Champions event in China.
The Australian finished Thursday's first day in Shanghai in a tie for 14th with five other players including champion Swede Henrik Stenson and England's Lee Westwood.
Another Swede Rikard Karlberg made his World Golf Championships debut with an eight-under 64 for a one-shot lead over American Rickie Fowler.
One year after Russell Knox won in his first WGC at Sheshan International, Karlberg took an impressive first step. He was nine under through 16 holes on a soggy course before scrambling for par on the 17th and then taking his lone bogey on the par-5 18th when he drove into a fairway bunker.
Fowler attacked the par fives in his first round since the Ryder Cup.
Scotland's Knox, American Daniel Berger and Hideki Matsuyama of Japan carded six-under 66s.
Spaniard Sergio Garcia was in a five-way tie for ninth after a four-under-par first round of 68.
Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson never managed to get anything going. McIlroy and Watson each fired 71, while Johnson struggled to hit fairways and made only one birdie in a 74.
