Abu Dhabi hasn’t been the happiest of hunting grounds for Marc Warren down the seasons but he recorded his best score in 11 appearances in the HSBC Championship as he tucked himself in among the early frontrunners on day one.

While Henrik Stenson, the Open champion and last year’s European No 1, surged to the front with a neatly crafted eight-under 64, Warren moved into a share of second place with an eight-birdie 66.

The 35-year-old’s best finish in the Abu Dhabi event is 26th but the three-time tour winner made an early statement of intent in his first event of 2017.

"I felt as though I finished the season last year pretty strongly and got off to a good start again today," said Warren. "It just proves that what I've been doing the last couple weeks, what I've been working on, is hopefully going to take me in the right direction. I started on 10 and made birdie there and birdied 11 as well. I was three under after four, so it was the perfect start after seven or eight weeks off."

Stenson, meanwhile, made light of his lack of preparation with a shimmering opening round which gave him a two stroke lead over the chasing pack. The 40-year-old has spent more time skiing than playing golf since finishing second in the Hero World Challenge in December, a fortnight after winning the Race to Dubai for the second time in four years.

But the Swede showed no signs of rust as he raced to the top of the leaderboard with a card that was bolstered by a six-under outward half of 30.

"It must be that lack of practice that does it," said Stenson, who holds the Abu Dhabi course record of 62. "Lack of sleep, lack of practice, but I'm obviously delighted with that score. I think I scored a bit better than I played but I kept it under control somewhat, hit a couple of close iron shots and made the putts. The preparations were very limited. That might be the way forward."

Stenson finished the day ahead of a posse which, in addition to Warren, included three-time Abu Dhabi winner Martin Kaymer, Oliver Fisher and Kiradech Aphibarnrat.

Kaymer, who has three other top-five finishes as well as his trio of wins in the Middle East, produced a grandstand finish and birdied his last three holes to barge up the standings.

"It doesn't feel like I need to do a lot of special things on this golf course in order to play well because I usually putt well on those greens,” said Kaymer, who is without a European Tour win since 2014.

Thomas Bjorn, the European Ryder Cup captain, joined a pile on 68 while defending champion Rickie Fowler and reigning US Open champion Dustin Johnson had to settle for opening rounds of 72. Danny Willett, the Masters champion, struggled to a 74 which included a triple-bogey seven on the 14th.

With Warren leading the saltire into battle, the rest of the Scots made solid enough starts to the campaign in the desert. Richie Ramsay opened with a 69 while David Drysdale, fresh from a seventh place finish in the South African Open last week, posted a 70.

Stephen Gallacher marked his 500th European Tour appearance with a 71 as he became the fifth Scot to achieve that milestone after Sam Torrance (706), Colin Montgomerie (605), Gordon Brand Jnr (597) and Paul Lawrie (591). Gallacher was joined on that mark by Scot Jamieson and Duncan Stewart. Lawrie, the 1999 Open champion, had a one-over 73.