Tom McKibbin catapulted himself into contention for a $4.75m payday on his LIV Golf debut when he opened with a bogey-free 65 under floodlights in the season-opening LIV Riyadh event in Saudi Arabia.
The Holywood star (22) made an eagle and five birdies in his first start since his shock move, finishing the day tied for third with Lee Westwood.
He was just three shots behind Poland’s Adrian Meronk, who shot a bogey-free, 10-under 62 to lead by two shots from Sebastian Munoz.
The winner of the $20m individual event will pocket $4,000,000 with the winning team splitting another $3,000,000.
With all four team scores to count each day this season compared to three of four for the first two rounds and all four only in the third and final round last year, McKibbin’s Legion XIII team had a seven stroke lead over the Majesticks after day one.
Tyrrell Hatton and Caleb Surrat were joint fifth after 66s with Jon Rahm joint ninth after a 67.
At 24-under, Legion XIII had a seven stroke lead over the Majesticks comprising Westwood (65), Sam Horsfield (68), Henrik Stenson (68) and Ian Poulter (70).