Shane Lowry reeled off five birdies in a row on the back nine as he posted an opening 64 to lead by one shot after the first round of the 2025 DP World India Championship.
Keita Nakajima had led for much of the day after firing a seven-under-par 65 in the morning at Delhi Golf Club but afternoon starter Lowry managed to leapfrog him after making eight birdies in a spotless round.
After carding back-to-back birdies on the fifth and sixth, Lowry caught fire at the start of the back nine as he picked up shots on the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th to join Nakajima at the summit.
The Ryder Cup hero then finished his round with a birdie from four feet on the 18th to lead the way on eight under par.
Japan's Nakajima was his nearest challenger on seven under, one ahead of Casey Jarvis after the South African's sparkling 66.
Playing alongside Europe's victorious Ryder Cup Captain Luke Donald and his team-mate Tommy Fleetwood, Lowry opened his birdie account at the par-three fifth before getting another from close range on the sixth.
The Irishman made four pars before getting his next birdie from 12 feet at the 11th hole.
After sending his tee-shot at the short 12th to ten feet and knocking in the putt, Lowry holed from similar range on the 13th for a hat-trick of birdies.
He took advantage of the par-five 14th before rolling in from eight feet on the 15th to make it five in a row.
Lowry then managed to get up and down from just shy of the 18th green for another birdie to take the outright lead.
He said: "I putted nicely today. I played nice. Gave myself a lot of chances and then I birdied a few on the back nine, it was pretty nice.
"It was a really nice group, playing with Luke and Tommy. We all had a great time and we all played pretty good. I just rolled off a few more birdies than they did on the back nine.
"You know, 64 is a really nice score. It's not that hard when you hit it in play out there but when you start missing fairways it becomes quite tricky. I'm pretty happy with that.
"When I saw the draw, I was really happy. Being with the lads, we've had some good things happen the last few weeks. It was nice.
"I haven't played with Luke that much in tournaments but obviously I know him pretty well and we all fed off each other and it was nice.
"I feel like this type of golf course suits me. I spend half the year moaning about golf courses that are too wide, so when I get to somewhere like here, I need to take advantage of that, and I did that today and hopefully I can keep doing that for the rest of the week."
