Australia's Cameron Smith was handily placed in a group of players two shots behind the leaders, having bogeyed two par-threes.

Hatton, who was competing in his first event since ‌welcoming the birth of his first child, recorded five birdies against one bogey playing in gusty conditions on Thursday at Real Club Valderrama, home of ‌the 1997 Ryder Cup.

The 34-year-old Englishman admitted that he is having difficulty getting significant practice time on the golf course given ‌present shifts in priorities.

"Yeah, absolutely different preparation," he said. "Once we got her home, it was a lot harder than I expected it to be. I tried to practice every day, and by practice, I mean I literally hit between 35 and 75 balls. I've got a swing studio at the house, so that makes it a little bit easier.

"For the rest of the ‌time, I was ‌trying to be ⁠in the house helping Emily. She ended up having a C-section, so her movement ​was somewhat limited. Just tried my best to be there and support her and obviously look after our daughter."

Vincent, from Zimbabwe, turned in a bogey-free round while competing in place of HyFlyers GC captain Phil Mickelson.

"It was incredible. I think it's the best 18 holes I've played this year is maybe what I would say," Vincent said after recording a birdie on sixth, 11th, 12th ⁠and 15th holes.

"It was just so tough out there. I was ‌able to ​execute a lot of the shots how I wanted to, and then when I did get in trouble, I was ​able to make ‌amazing saves."

Hatton and Vincent reside one stroke ahead of Thomas Detry (68 on Thursday and alone in third place) and two ​clear of a five-golfer contingent that includes Smith and Sergio Garcia (69) of Spain.

Australia's Lucas Herbert finished day one five shots behind the leaders with Marc Leishman a further shot behind. Travis Smyth and Elvis Smylie were both three over.