Oliver Wilson feels he is ready to claim his maiden European Tour title after he put himself among the early pacesetters with an opening-round four-under-par 68 at the BMW Asian Open.
The 27-year-old from Mansfield has come close to securing that elusive win on a number of occasions in his four years on the circuit, most notably at the Johnnie Walker Classic and the Deutsche Bank Players' Championship last season.
Wilson again finished second at the Volvo China Open in Beijing last week and has continued his fine form at Shanghai Pudong Golf Club to sit one stroke behind leader Peter O'Malley going into the second round.
Starting on the 10th, Wilson picked up his first birdie on the par-four 11th when he hit a wedge to 10 feet before holing the birdie putt.
He then added another on the 15th while making par on the rest to reach the turn at two under.
Wilson picked up three more birdies coming home but dropped to four under when he three putted on the par-five ninth for a bogey.
"I have been in contention a few times now and I am ready to win," he said.
"I just need a bit of luck here and there and if your short game is in shape then hopefully I won't be too far (away) come Sunday.
"I just have to keep doing what I am doing and keep giving myself opportunities.
"Today I played lovely. Apart from the last I only had one par save so gave myself a lot of chances.
"It was a shame to finish like I did after such a good round but with a 68 I am very happy to get that around this course."
Australian O'Malley, most famous for his 1992 Scottish Open victory, carded six birdies and only one bogey for a five-under 67 to take sole lead ahead of the second round.
The 42-year-old has been without a victory on the European Tour since 2001 and is hoping he can maintain his good start to give himself a chance come Sunday.
"Every year I have a goal to win a tournament in Europe and Australia," said O'Malley. "I haven't won in Europe for seven years so that is my goal this season."
World number 13 Henrik Stenson, playing his first tournament since finishing tied for 17th at the Masters, carded a birdie on the last to join Wilson, Jeev Milkha Singh and Mikko Ilonen in joint second on four under.
The 32-year-old started with aplomb when he carded four birdies in his first seven holes before bogeying the par-four 17th - his eighth hole.
Stenson then carded one bogey against two birdies coming home to keep himself in with a chance of making amends for his play-off defeat in the tournament two years ago.
"It is always nice to come back to a course where you have played well before," he said.
"Obviously, you don't want to bring back the memories of how it felt five minutes after losing the play-off but I enjoyed myself here."
Defending champion Raphael Jacquelin made a bad start to his round with a double bogey on the first and returned to the clubhouse one over while 2006 Ryder Cup star Darren Clarke finished one under par alongside former world number one Greg Norman.
Collated first-round scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
67 Peter O'Malley (Aus)
68 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Oliver Wilson, Henrik Stenson (Swe)
69 Scott Hend (Aus)
70 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Robert Dinwiddie, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn), Danny Chia (Mal), Richard Lee (Can), Marcus Fraser (Aus)
71 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Joost Luiten (Ned), John Bickerton, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa), Wen-chong Liang (Chn), Miles Tunnicliff, Sam Little, Michael Campbell (Nzl), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Andrew Coltart, Scott Strange (Aus), Wen-Tang Lin (Tai), Chris Rodgers, Darren Clarke, Greg Norman (Aus), Paul Broadhurst, Carl Suneson (Spa), Iain Steel (Mal), Chao Li (Chn), Ross McGowan
72 Zaw Moe (Kor), Ross Fisher, Martin Kaymer (Ger), Peter Lawrie, Peter Hedblom (Swe), David Frost (Rsa), Gerald Rosales (Phi), Scott Barr (Aus), Young-Woo Nam (Kor), Antonio Lascuna (Phi), Retief Goosen (Rsa), Scott Drummond, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Sung Lee (Kor), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Richard Finch
73 Rahil Gangjee (Ind), Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Prom Meesawat (Tha), Zhi-Feng Qiu (Tpe), Mu Hu (Chn), Simon Wakefield, Rory McIlroy, Keng-chi Lin (Tai), Magnus Carlsson (Swe), David Gleeson (Aus), Phillip Price, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Julio Zapata (Arg), Mardan Mamat (Sin), Mong-nan Hsu (Tpe), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Jason Knutzon (USA), Sam Walker, Marcus Both (Aus), Angelo Que (Phi)
74 Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Simon Yates, Wen Teh Lu (Tpe), Oliver Fisher, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi), Sven Struver (Ger), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Prayad Marksaeng (Tha), Chapchai Nirat (Tha), Adam Blyth (Aus), Digvijay Singh (Ind), Christian Cevaer (Fra), Gaurav Ghei (Ind), Graeme McDowell, Peter Whiteford, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Kane Webber (USA), Gary Murphy, Gui Ming Liao (Chn), Hao Yuan (Chn), Tom Whitehouse, Wook-Soon Kang (Kor), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), David Bransdon (Aus), Barry Lane
75 Wen-zhang Yang (Chn), Seung-yul Noh (Kor), Wei Chih Lu (Tha), Damien McGrane, Frankie Minoza (Phi), Unho Park (Aus), Pelle Edberg (Swe), Anthony Kang (USA), Iain Pyman, Ming Jie Huang (Chn), Markus Brier (Aut), Ter-Chang Wang (Tpe), Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Zane Scotland (Gbr), Garry Houston, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), David Howell, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Marcel Siem (Ger), Stuart Manley, Adam Groom (Aus), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Gary Simpson (Aus), Paul Lawrie, Mark Brown (Nzl), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)
76 Bryan Saltus (USA), Anda Liu (Chn), Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Sang-moon Bae (Kor), Artemio-hiromasa Murakami (Phi), Jong Yul Suk (Kor), Chinarat Phadungsil (Tha), Peter Fowler (Aus)
77 Tony Carolan (Aus), Airil Rizman (Mal), Rick Kulacz (Aus), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Keith Horne (Rsa), Ted Oh (Kor), Chen chih Chiang (Tpe)
78 Simon Griffiths, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha), Simon Khan, Anthony Wall, Amandeep Johl (Ind), Wei-Huang Wu (Tpe), Kangchun Wu (Chn), Gavin Flint (Aus), Simon Hurd
79 Ming-hao Wang (Chn), Stephen Scahill (Nzl), Thammanoon Srirot (Tha), Ross Bain
80 Xiong-hui Ye (Chn), Xiao-ma Chen (Chn)
81 Wen-gen Zheng (Hkg)
82 Yong-hong Deng (Chn)
84 Lei Shang (Tpe)
