LOS ANGELES, California: Americans Kelly Kraft, JT Poston and Derek Fathauer shared the first-round lead at Colonial on Thursday with a host of big names on their heels in the US PGA Tour Dean & DeLuca Invitational.
Kraft, Poston and Fathauer fired five-under par 65s on the par-70 Colonial Country Club layout in Fort Worth, Texas.
They were one in front of Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, rising Spanish star Jon Rahm and American Scott Brown, with five-time major winner Phil Mickelson heading a group a further stroke back on 67.
McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion, is making his debut in a tournament that clashes with the European PGA Championship at Wentworth and made the most of benign morning conditions to grab four birdies without a bogey.
Mickelson also teed off early and finished with three straight birdies at the seventh, eighth and ninth.
Fathauer set an early target with six birdies in his 65 — including four in his final nine holes.
Kraft, runner-up at Pebble Beach this year, had five birdies without a bogey, his 40-footer at 16 giving him a share of the lead.
Poston had six birdies against one bogey.
Brown had seven birdies and held the outright lead at six-under before a double-bogey at the 18th dropped him into a tie with McDowell and Rahm.
Mickelson was joined on 67 by another two-time winner in Zach Johnson along with Ryan Moore, Kevin Kisner, Nick Watney and Sean O’Hair.
Defending champion Jordan Spieth endured a roller-coaster of a day in which four bogeys and a double-bogey and six birdies — including back-to-back birdies to end his round — yielded an even-par 70.
