Extending his good form, Gaganjeet Bhullar shot a 4-under 67 to position himself tied second at the end of the first round of the Shinhan Donghae Open on Thursday.
Bhullar, who has five Top-10s in his last seven starts, is two shots behind local man, Sanghyun Park (65) along with six others including South African Jbe Kruger and Frenchman Lionel Weber.
Bhullar, who won the 2016 edition here, was the best Indian, as Rashid Khan (68) was T-9th, Viraj Madappa, winner of Take Solutions last month, was T-28 and Ajeetesh Sandhu (71) and Arjun Atwal (71) were T-41st.
Shiv Kapur, Jyoti Randhawa and S Chikkarangappa carded 72 and were T-67, while Khalin Joshi (70) was T-90th.
Bhullar started from the back nine and birdied the 11th, dropped just one bogey on Par-5 14th and he birdied 15th and 17th to turn in 2-under 33. On the second nine, he birdied his closing holes eighth and ninth.
"It was a steady round of golf today. I hit 11 fairways and 14 greens in regulation. I gave myself a lot of birdie chances. The last two holes were really good. Holes eight and nine turned around the day for me, Bhullar said.
"The only bogey I had was on 15, my fifth hole of the day. I missed the fairway off the tee and I had to lay up. Then I missed the third shot onto the green. The goal this week is to keep the ball in play.
"Golf is a like a marathon. It is still too early to discuss a victory. You have to go out there and give 100 per cent every day and hope that your game clicks."