Morrison had seven birdies, an eagle and a lone bogey on Thursday before the players who teed off in the afternoon struggled while facing rain and wind gusts of more than 50 kph.

Play was eventually suspended due to darkness and fans were requested to leave the course during the final part of the opening round for safety reasons because of the strong winds.

"I'm very happy," Morrison said. "Knew the draw was going to be that way and we got more holes in this morning with no wind than we actually thought we were going to get in so we had to make hay while the sun was shining and I did that."

The Englishman, who won the Spanish Open in 2015, was seven-under through a stretch of seven holes midway through his round at the Real Club de Golf Sotogrande.

"Spain's been very, very good to me over the last 14 years," he said.

"I love coming here, it suits my eye, most courses inherently aren't as long as we play on tour, so they're more positional sort of golf courses."

Morrison was ahead of Nick Bachem, of Germany, while defending champion Adrian Otaegui, of Spain, was two shots behind after a bogey-free round.

"Knew the draw was going to be that way and we got more holes in this morning with no wind than we actually thought we were going to get in so we had to make hay while the sun was shining and I did that." – James Morrison. 

Jason Scrivener, the lone Australian in the field, had a decent start, shooting a three-under 69 to sit in a six-way tie for 12th place.

U.S Open champion Wyndham Clark – the only top-10 player in the field – was in a tie for 18th after his round of two-under 70.

Clark was a member of the losing U.S Ryder Cup team three weeks ago but hadn't played in a tournament in nearly two months, since the Tour Championship in late August.

European Ryder Cup team member Robert MacIntyre was at even-par, while New Zealander Ryan Fox, the leading DP World Tour player in the field at No.3 in the 'Race to Dubai' order of merit – also shot a 71.