Australian veteran Peter Lonard made the most of his first USPGA Tour round since 2009 on Thursday as he joined a half-dozen players sharing the first-round lead at the Viking Classic.
Lonard’s eight birdies included two on his last two holes at Annandale Golf Club as he joined the big leading group on seven-under 65.
The six-man bunch atop the board also included South Korea’s Kang Sung-hoon, who had an eagle at the par-five seventh hole to go with six birdies and one bogey.
Lonard, 43, was a late addition to the field and had been on his way to a Nationwide Developmental Tour event in Ohio when he got the call to head to Mississippi.
He didn’t arrive until Tuesday night and was not able to complete a full practice round, but that did not seem to slow him down on Thursday.
“I made a few mistakes down the front nine, but all in all, I played pretty good,” Lonard said.
Lonard has played 11 Nationwide events this season and his tied 11th-placed finish in the -Mexico Open a fortnight ago was his best of the year.
“Mexico was good. I had a chance to win in that and I blew it,” said Lonard, who shot a final-round 73 in that event. “I hit probably one bad shot at the wrong time.”
Although the competition is stiffer on the USPGA Tour, Lonard said he felt comfortable teeing it up with players he knows well.
“I probably feel more comfortable here than I do on the Nationwide because I know all the people here ... it’s the life I’ve lived for the last 10 years at least,” said Lonard, whose lone USPGA Tour win came in 2005. “Nationwide is all young kids and all that sort of stuff.”
Lonard and Kang were joined by Americans Tim Petrovic, John Mallinger and Bobby Gates, along with Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge.
Petrovic played so well he hardly noticed the suffocating heat.
“When you’re hitting it like I hit it today, making some putts, you don’t tend to sweat so much,” Petrovic said. “Makes your life a little easier.”
Thunderstorms earlier this week had left the course receptive, especially in the morning, and players were allowed to lift, clean and place balls on the fairway.
“When you get the ball in the hand all the time, you can be a little more aggressive at the flag,” said Mallinger, who birdied six straight holes from the ninth.
With most of the world’s top players competing in The Open, the Viking Classic’s purse of US$3.6 million and offer of 250 FedEx Cup points are about half that of a normal USPGA Tour event.
With 106 players at par or better after the first round, plenty were in the hunt.
Nine players, including 50-year-old Kenny Perry, were a stroke back on six-under 66.
Perry was joined by compatriots Michael Connell, Hunter Haas, Chez Reavie, Tom Pernice, Troy Matteson and Bill Lunde, along with Argentina’s Fabian Gomez and South Korea’s Kim Bi-o.
A group of 15 players, which included Australian Rod Pampling and Sweden’s Richard Johnson, were tied on 67.
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