DP World Tour : DP World Tour Championship
The Ryder Cup star was one over after six holes and level par as he made the turn at Jumeirah Golf Estates but reeled off five birdies in six holes to sign for a 67 and get to five under.
Earlier, Earth Course debutant Guerrier was bogey-free in making the same score at the fifth Rolex Series of the event of the season before in-form countryman Pavon finished birdie-birdie to join him with a blemish-free effort of his own.
Another Frenchman in Antoine Rozner was a shot off the lead alongside Swede Jens Dantorp and Pole Adrian Meronk, one clear of Højgaard's Ryder Cup team-mates Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland and Robert MacIntyre and South Korea's Tom Kim.
Dane Højgaard finished fourth over the Earth Course in his only previous appearance at this event in 2021, catapulting himself into the top ten on that season's final Rankings.
Seven top tens in the 2023 season helped him earn his place in the European Team that defeated the United States in Rome and he had his best finish of the campaign finishing second at last week's Nedbank Championship.
He has brought that form to Dubai and revealed his Ryder Cup experience had given him the hunger to go to the very top as he looks for a first Rolex Series win.
"Spending time with the best players in the world, fighting for a common goal was amazing, and just being around those guys, seeing what they do, what do I do different, what do I need to work on," he said.
"It gave me a lot of confidence going into the last end of the season here. You want to play with those guys but you also want to beat them.
Pavon recently claimed his first DP World Tour title at the acciona Open de España presented by Madrid and has since added two further top 20s in his last three events.
Guerrier is making his first appearance at the season-ending event after qualifying thanks to three top threes, including his best DP World Tour career finish of second at the Porsche European Open.
Meronk is already a three-time winner this season and he holed his second at the fifth from 130 yards for an eagle, the highlight of a round that also contained four birdies and two bogeys.
Dantorp played his way into this event last week and he carded six birdies and two bogeys, with Rozner dropping a single shot in his 68.
Kim was the only bogey-free player in the group at three under, which sat a shot ahead of English pair Dan Bradbury and Tyrrell Hatton, Swede Alexander Björk and Dane Thorbjørn Olesen.
Rory McIlroy has already wrapped up the Race to Dubai title and he was at one under, a shot clear of playing partner and defending champion Jon Rahm.
He put approaches to six feet at the fifth and 11th, took advantage of the 14th and then almost aced the 17th before holing a 40-footer on the last.
"What I've really released is now I know with my team, we were working on the right way," he said. "For sure, I had a great, solid year, many top tens but I was missing something to get my first victory and I finally got it in Madrid.
"It's more confirmation of what we achieve with my team so far and it was nice to have it done a few weeks ago and put me in a good way mentally to play these last two tournaments of the year."
edit **** please note this event in Dubai is played Thursday 16th - Sunday 19th....Some middle east events are Wed - Sat..
europeantour.com
Bryan Angus (edit)
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