COLOGNE, Germany, June 21, 2012 (AFP) - Fraser, a two-time European Tour winner, saw his round matched by Paraguay's Fabrizio Zanotti while Ireland's former Ryder Cup vice captain Paul McGinley and English pair Danny Willett and Chris Wood were a shot off the pace.
"It's great. I played really well - drove the ball really straight, only missed one fairway," said the 33-year-old Fraser, who hit five birdies in the last six holes. 
"The greens were nice this morning and I managed to make a few putts and especially a few at the end, which was great.
"On 17 I just missed the left edge, so could have been six. But that's always the story; we're never happy. I played really well and gave myself a lot of chances so it was nice to roll a few in."
Colin Montgomerie, back from television commentary work on the US Open in San Francisco, shot 69.
But local favourite Martin Kaymer struggled with jet-lag.
"I only slept for two hours," said Kaymer who carded a 71, the same as Sergio Garcia.
Leading and selected first round scores in the BMW International Open at Gut Larchenhof GC, Cologne, on Thursday (GBR/IRL unless stated, par 72):
64 - Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR), Marcus Fraser (AUS)
65 - Chris Wood, Danny Willett, Paul McGinley
66 - Shiv Kapur (IND), Keith Horne (RSA), Pelle Edberg (SWE), Gregory Havret (FRA)
67 - Soren Kjeldsen (DEN), Thomas Norret (DEN), Joel Sjoholm (SWE), Stephen Gallacher, Richard Green (AUS), Oscar Floren (SWE)
68 - Mikael Lundberg (SWE), Carlos Del Moral (ESP), Christian Nilsson (SWE), Joost Luiten (NED), Marcel Siem (GER), Julien Guerrier (FRA), Simon Dyson, Alex Cejka (GER), John Daly (USA), Niclas Fasth (SWE), Miguel Angel Jimenez (ESP), Michael Jonzon (SWE), Bradley Dredge
Selected
69 - Hennie Otto (RSA), Colin Montgomerie, Dylan Frittelli (RSA), Richard Sterne (RSA)
70 - Michael Campbell (NZL), Thongchai Jaidee (THA), Tjaart Van Der Walt (RSA)
71 - James Kingston (RSA), Martin Kaymer (GER), Jeong Jin (KOR), Jbe Kruger (RSA), Sergio Garcia (ESP), Rich Beem (USA)
72 - Thomas Aiken (RSA), Jose-Maria Olazabal (ESP), Huang Wen-yi (CHN), Jeev Milkha Singh (IND), Bernhard Langer (GER), Darren Fichardt (RSA) Paul Lawrie
73 - Matthew Zions (AUS), Brett Rumford (AUS)
74 - Andrew Dodt (AUS), Warren Abery (RSA)
75 - Alex Haindl (RSA), Retief Goosen (RSA) Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (IND)