Three-time champion Simon Dyson of England matched the course record at the Kennemer Golf & Country Club with a 63 to join fellow Englishman Oliver Fisher and Julien Quesne of France a shot behind the leaders.
Dyson won two of his Dutch titles on the links-like Kennemer course on the Dutch North Sea coast and the third in Hilversum.
"I've done well in previous years and played well around it today," he said. "I played really solid apart from the last two holes and never looked like making bogey."
So far, his only dropped shots of the week came on the first hole of the first round, when he double-bogeyed the par 4.
Another Spaniard, Jorge Campillo, also shot a 63 with six birdies on the front nine to be at 6 under in a tie for seventh. He looked on track for a new course record, but had a three-putt bogey on the 18th.