Scotland's Scott Jamieson and New Zealand's Daniel Hillier were among the early starters at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and were able to complete their rounds before play was suspended for the day due to a sandstorm first then the threat of lightning. Both players carded bogey-free 7-under 65s.
"Delighted with that start," said Jamieson. "It was pretty solid tee to green and I managed to hole some putts today, which has probably let me down in the last few weeks - certainly been hitting the ball well enough to do better than I have done - but today was a different story.
"It was lovely (being out first). The only problem is it is so humid but you obviously get less wind as you always know you are going to get wind here in the afternoon and the course is a little softer as well so, thankfully, I was able to take advantage of that."
Defending champion Ewen Ferguson and fellow Scots Stephen Gallacher and Robert MacIntyre are tied in third place at 6-under alongside Spain's Santiago Tarrio.
