In-form Australians Min Woo Lee and Cam Davis have carried the momentum from career-best PGA Championship showings to be well positioned after the first round of Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas.
Lee opened with a three-under-par 67 to trail runaway English leader Harry Hall by five shots at Colonial Country Club, with Davis one stroke further back after carding a 68.
Three back-nine birdies, including one at the last hole, vaulted Lee into a share of seventh.
Backing up from a tie for 18th at last week's PGA Championship in New York, Lee offset two birdies with two bogeys on the front nine.
The 24-year-old is among 15 players at three under, including world No.1 Scottie Scheffler and defending champion Sam Burns, who beat Scheffler in a playoff last year.
Davis, flying high after securing a Masters berth with a top-four finish at the PGA Championship, enjoyed a bogey-free round and picked up shots on the first and the 12th holes.
Fellow Australians Lucas Herbert and Aaron Baddley both shot even-par 70s but Harrison Endycott needs to make up ground in round two to make the cut after opening with a 74 to be tied for 106th in the 120-man field.
American club pro Michael Block, dubbed the people's champion after a fairytale showing in New York last week, is running dead last after a nightmare 11-over 81 start.
"It is what it is. I'm going to live with it," he said.
"I thought it was going to happen that third or fourth round last week at Oak Hill, and it never happened. It happened now, and I wasn't surprised by it, to tell you the truth."
Hall, the PGA Tour rookie, changed up his routine this week by playing 36 holes of practice at Colonial -- a Monday pro-am and then nine holes on Tuesday and Wednesday. That helps, along with his putter.
"Maybe that's the key, just to see a bit more of the course than I have done in the past," the 25-year-old said.
"Been waiting for a round like that with the putter because I know I can get hot, and consistently I'm really good. Yeah, that was nice to hole some putts out there today.
"I didn't do too much different. I kind of just made things a little bit more simple.
"This feels nice to be on the leaderboard."
With AP & Reuters.
