Jones, a two-time winner of the Australian Open and Honda Classic champion earlier this year, shot a bogey-free round of 7-under 64 to trail leader Sung Kang by three strokes after the opening round.

Kang’s round of 61 is the lowest opening round since Rod Pampling shot 60 on his way to victory in 2016 and gives him a two-shot buffer from fellow Korean Sungjae Im, Charley Hoffman and Chad Ramey who each shot 8-under on day one at TPC Summerlin.

Jones’ first round since finishing tied for 38th at the BMW Championship in late August puts him in a share of fifth spot alongside Talor Gooch, Adam Schenk, Chesson Hadley and Matthew Wolff as he seeks to begin his 2021/2022 season in strong fashion.

In an impressive display of ball-striking first up Jones hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation, crediting time away with the family for the refreshed mental approach he needed at the start of another long season.

“I put the clubs away for a long time,” Jones revealed post-round. “They were in my travel case for about three weeks.

“Just to rest the body, rest the head mainly, and had some family time. Went on a couple trips and had a good time.

“We enjoy Mexico and we enjoy margaritas and tacos, so we had a good time.”

“I’ll tell you that the little amount of work I’ve done for the last five weeks, I was expecting a little more rust, but to go bogey-free was probably more of a goal than shooting 64, just to not make silly mistakes when you haven’t played golf for a while.”

Starting from the 10th tee, Jones found the left side of the fairway on the 448-yard par-4 11th hole, setting himself up for his first birdie of the day with an approach from 140 yards.

He backed that up with a second at the par-4 12th when he holed his birdie putt from just four feet, birdies at 15 and 16 rounding out a front nine of 4-under.

His fifth birdie of the day came at the 492-yard par-4 third hole and at the short par-4 sixth a birdie putt from 12 feet found the bottom of the hole.

The New South Welshman powered a drive 349 yards at the par-5 ninth, hitting his third shot to nine feet for a seventh birdie and a spot inside the top five.

“I did everything pretty well today,” Jones added. “Just try and continue on what I was doing and have the same feels I had in the golf swing (tomorrow).”

Marc Leishman and Cam Davis are both three strokes back of Jones after posting rounds of 67 in Round 1 while Adam Scott is nine strokes off the lead following a 1-under par round of 70.

At the LPGA Tour’s Cognizant Founders Cup close friends Hannah Green and Su Oh are one of 11 players tied for ninth at 3-under par, five shots back of leader Jin-Young Ko (63) who has a three-shot buffer to Sandra Gal (66).

Kiwi Ryan Fox is four strokes off the lead at the Open de Espana after peeling off seven birdies in his round of 6-under 65, Min Woo Lee the best of the Aussies in a share of 21st at 4-under.