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 The Spaniard produced nine birdies in his round at Lake Malaren Golf
Club in Shanghai to sit one clear of South Korea's An Byeong-hun and
Victor Dubuisson of France in the penultimate event of the European
Tour's Race to Dubai series.
World number 11 Garcia is looking for his first win this year and
was optimistic of breaking the drought after another trademark
strong round tee-to-green.
"I drove the ball very well and that gave me a lot of opportunities
to hit some good iron shots. It was a nice round," the 35-year-old
Spaniard said.
"I had a couple of nice birdies, three birdies in the first four on
my front nine and then another three or four birdies on the first
four or five on the back nine.
"Hopefully, I keep improving as the week goes on and we'll be out
there on Sunday having a chance."
Northern Ireland's Rory McIlory, the current Race to Dubai leader,
is not playing in Shanghai this week which gives the chasing pack an
opportunity to close in on the world number three before next week's
finale in the UAE.
England's Danny Willett is second in the standings, Ireland's Shane
Lowry third and South African Louis Oosthuizen fourth but all three
struggled to keep pace with Garcia on Thursday's opening day.
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Willett could only manage a level par 72, while Lowry and Oosthuizen
were at two-under in a share of 24th.
England's Justin Rose boosted his chances of improving on his fifth
place standing by firing an opening round five-under-par 67 to share
sixth with compatriot Paul Casey and Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee.
Thongchai's card was spoiled by two dropped shots in his final four
holes.
(This story has been refiled to fix typo in headline)
(Writing by Patrick Johnston in Singapore; Editing by John O'Brien)
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