Yannik Paul joined a trio of local favourites in the clubhouse lead after a fog-affected day one of the ISPS HANDA – CHAMPIONSHIP in Japan.

Nearly three hours was lost to fog early in the morning at Taiheiyo Club Gotemba Course but when play got under way, German Paul posted a 65 to sit at five under alongside Japan’s Tomoyo Ikemura, Taisei Shimizu and Taiki Yoshida.

Another local favourite in Taiga Nagano was also at five under with seven holes remaining, with only two of the afternoon groups having completed their rounds.

Japanese trio Yuki Inamori, Ryosuke Kinoshita and Keita Nakajima were in the clubhouse at four under alongside China’s Li Haotong, South African Casey Jarvis, Swede Sebastian Söderberg and Scot Connor Syme.

The Asian Swing returns to the DP World Tour this week at an event co-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour Organisation as we tee it up in the Land of the Rising Sun for the second consecutive season.

Paul – a winner at the 2022 Mallorca Golf Open – already has three top tens in 2024 and his 65 was his lowest round since his first of the season at the Dubai Invitational.

Starting on the tenth, he birdied the 11th, 14th, 15th and 18th to turn in 31 and a 45-footer on the second handed him the solo lead.

Another birdie on the next got him to six under and while he made two bogeys to a single birdie on the way in, he was pleased with his day’s work.

“I putted really nicely,” he said. “My putting coach Mike came to Arizona two weeks ago and we changed quite a few things because that was the first time I saw him off site so it was a better time to change some stuff and it worked really nicely.

“I was hitting it OK, nothing special, and I capitalised on a lot of my chances.”

Ikemura has two wins on this week’s co-sanctioning tour and he made four birdies in five holes from the second, adding another three on the back nine but also making two bogeys.

“I just tried not to make a bogey but I made a few bogeys in the morning,” he said. “In that situation, I managed to make birdies, which made my game good overall.

“My ball-striking was great and my putting distance control was pretty good.”

Shimizu was bogey-free in his round, picking up shots on the third, eighth, 11th, 12th and 16th.

“Today, my short-game and putting went well,” he said. “I didn’t overthink overall and just kept playing my game.

“So far this season, my ball-striking has been good, so I need to keep what I have been doing. By doing so, I will be able to be in contention.”

Yoshida made four birdies in a row from the third and joined the lead with another at the 14th before recovering from a bogey on the 17th with a birdie on the last.

“I’m happy to play under par today,” he said. “There are still three more days so I don’t want to think about the win. I just want to finish well.”

Nakajima, Kinoshita, Inamori and Syme were all bogey-free in their 66s, while Söderberg dropped a single shot and Jarvis had two blemishes.

Li made an eagle at the par-four tenth to go with four birdies and two bogeys, with Spaniard Alejandro del Rey also at four under with seven to play.

There were then 17 players two shots off the lead, ten of whom had finished their rounds.

Ren Yonezawa made the tenth hole-in-one of the season as he holed a six iron from 188 yards on the par-three 13th.

The first round will resume at 06.30 on day two, with all second round tee times subject to a one-hour delay.