Matt Wallace reaped the rewards of putting the Ryder Cup firmly to the back of his mind with an opening round of 65 in the Volvo China Open.
Wallace followed his victory in the Hero Indian Open by missing the cut in his next two events, but bounced back to top form in Beijing to card an eagle, seven birdies and two bogeys at Topwin Golf and Country Club.
That gave the 28-year-old Englishman a share of second place on 7-under-par with Italy's Nino Bertasio, a shot behind surprise leader Daxing Jin of China, who is ranked 1,426th in the world.
"I made a couple of bogeys, which were probably mental errors rather than swing errors, but I'm swinging it great and really happy after today," Wallace said in a post-round interview broadcast on Sky Sports.
"I have been trying to shorten my swing for a while, it's been an ongoing thing since I've been working with [fellow European Tour professional] Robert Rock and I've never really managed to do it, but last week I found something.
"It's a weird feeling, I feel like I'm swinging it halfway [back] but I'm not losing any distance and I'm just hitting better shots. I had two missed cuts but I was trending in the right direction. I was swinging it nicely, hitting some good shots.
Jin compiled a flawless 64 which included six birdies and a chip-in eagle on the par-five eighth, his penultimate hole of the day.
"I played really well today," said Jin, who missed the cut in this event last year.
"I'm really happy with my form and I have to say I would give myself 100 marks for today's round.
Defending champion Alexander Levy, who also won in Morocco on Sunday, carded an opening 69, while Japan's Hideto Tanihara won a Volvo XC90 for a hole-in-one on the 16th in his 72.
