A bogey on the par-four 13th could not ruin a fabulous round by Fasth

Niclas Fasth and Kevin Stadler fired course record-equalling rounds of 64 to share the first-round lead at the HSBC Champions event in Shanghai.

Swede Fasth fired seven birdies and an eagle to lie eight under alongside the USA's Stadler, who shot nine birdies.

A 67 put Vijay Singh alone in third place in the $5m (�2.38m) event.

World number two Phil Mickelson, US Open champion Angel Cabrera, Open champion Padraig Harrington and five others carded 68s.

However, Ernie Els - who was pipped to the Order of Merit title by Justin Rose last week - was way off the pace at three over after a disastrous round of 75 that included five bogeys.

But there were no such problems for Fasth, who went on to match the eight-under-par rounds carded by Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson and Michael Campbell last year after an opening birdie and an eagle three secured with a 25-foot putt from the back fringe.

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"I holed two good putts, it's not every day you're three under after two holes," said the world number 20. "Then I really just kept hitting great shots and playing well."

Stadler, son of former US Masters champion Craig, picked up six birdies in an otherwise blemish-free front nine and grabbed three more after a bogey at the 11th - a fine round for a player who only made sure of saving his US PGA Tour card last week.

"On the front nine everything was firing," he said. "It was great to play a worry-free tournament, I haven't had many of those in the last month or two."

Elsewhere, Liang Wenchong finished on three-under to keep alive his hopes of becoming the first local winner of the Champions and South Korea's Yang Yong-eun started his title defence with a steady one-under 71.