Taking advantage of benign conditions in the opening round of the Asian Tour's Volkswagen Masters, Lu shot a blistering nine-under 63 at China's Yalong Bay Golf Club to snatch a narrow one shot lead from defending champion Goosen and Campbell, the South African and the Kiwi both having fired eight-under-par 64s.

Englishman Yasin Ali is alone in fourth place after a 66, with Australian Scott Strange a further shot back in joint 5th alongside Malaysian Danny Chia and unheralded Chinese golfer, Huang Ming-jie.

After teeing off on the back nine, 43-year-old Lu posted 10 birdies and just one bogey in his stunning opening birdie blitz.

It was hardly surprising, then, that he told reporters: "I really like this course, it's similar to conditions back home.".

"My putting was amazing. I only missed two greens and then holed some really good putts and I must say it feels good to be leading two US Open champions."

Campbell, the 2005 US Open champion and runner-up to Goosen at last year's Volkswagen Masters, sparked his six-birdie round with a 20-foot eagle putt at his fourth hole because, as he said, seeing his name high on the leaderboard early on was a major mental boost.

"It was Absolutely so. Every time you see a good player leading a tournament, it makes it a harder goal to beat the guy," he opined.

"Over the past two months, when you've see Tiger Woods' name go up on the leaderboard when he's playing well, you know he'll be hard to beat.

"Hopefully I'll be sending out the same kind of message here this week."

Goosen, the 2001 and 2004 US Open champion, also fired an eagle, but mixed a bogey with his seven birdies otherwise he too could have joined Lu on 63.

"I got off to a slow start but suddenly I made three birdies in a row (from the fourth) and that got me going.

"But I played the par fives poorly in one under and lost a few shots, but it's still early in the week.

"My ball striking was pretty good and I hit some nice iron shots close. The work that I've put in to my swing in the past month or so is coming in now."

"A couple of weeks ago in the Korean Open, I also had a good start but struggled from then on. "Hopefully that won't happen again.

"In the meantime, it's good to see Michael starting well, maybe we'll see each other again on Sunday," Goosen added.

LEADING FIRST ROUND SCORES:

(par 70)

-9: Lu Wen-teh (TPE) 63

-8: Michael Campbell (NZL), Retief Goosen (RSA) 64

-6: Yasin Ali (ENG) 66

-5: Scott Strange (AUS), Huang Ming-jie (CHN), Danny Chia (MAS) 67

-4: Suk Jong-yul (KOR), Adam Le Vesconte (AUS), Lin Wen-tang (TPE), Gerald Rosales (PHI), Ross Bain (SCO), Tony Lascuna (PHI), Simon Dunn (SCO), Somkiat Srisanga (THA) 68

-3: Gary Rusnak (USA), Adam Blyth (AUS) 69

-2: Phillip Price (WAL), Wu As-Hun [A] (CHN), Kane Webber (AUS), Anthony Kang (USA), Mahal Pearce (NZL), Chen Yuan-chi (TPE), Brad Iles (NZL), Digvijay Singh (IND), Li Chao (CHN), Marcus Both (AUS), Lu Wei-lan (TPE), Chen Tze-chung (TPE), Arjun Singh (IND), Michael Wright (AUS) 70

-1: Hendrik Buhrmann (RSA), Andy Martin (AUS), Simon Nash (AUS), Garth Mulroy (RSA), David Freeman (HKG) 71

Even: Prom Meesawat (THA), Amandeep Johl (IND), Gavin Flint (AUS), Peter Karmis (RSA), Andrew Pitts (USA), Ari Savolainen (FIN), Kevin Chun (NZL), Liao Gui-ming (CHN), Lam Chih Bing (SIN), Zhang Lian-Wei (CHN), Terry Pilkadaris (AUS), Chinarat Phadungsil (THA), Unho Park (AUS), Juvic Pagunsan (PHI), Park Jun-Won (KOR), Yeh Chang-tng (TPE), Martin Rominger (SUI), Chan Song (KOR) 70