COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Kelly Grunewald, Bill Lunde, Bryce Molder and Dave Schultz each shot rounds of 4-under 67 on Thursday to share the lead after the first round of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational.
Rich Barcelo, Jonas Blixt, Bubba Dickerson, Scott Gardiner, Won Joon Lee, Marc Leishman and Phil Tataurangi are one shot behind the leaders at 3-under 68, and there are 74 players overall separated by just five shots at the top of the leaderboard.
All four co-leaders played in a morning tee time at on The Ohio State University Scarlet Course, which Molder called ‘a good, tough golf course.’
‘It was probably as easy as it’s going to be for the whole week,’ said Molder, who won the 2006 Miccosukee Championship. ‘There’s very little or no wind. The fairways are running just enough to where it didn’t play really, really long, and the greens were holding just enough.’
Molder played in the second group off the first tee and made three consecutive pars to start the round. That uneventful beginning was interrupted by a bogey at the fourth, but Molder made that stroke up with a birdie at the fifth.
He made four birdies in a 10-hole span from the eighth hole to take the clubhouse lead.
Lunde had just one birdie in his first 11 holes -- and a bogey -- but he went on to make four birdies in a six-hole stretch late in the round to join Molder in the lead.
He also called the course tough.
‘There are only a couple ways to make birdie out there: You have to hit a really good shot in close, or make a 20-, 25-footer at times,’ said Lunde, who is seeking his first Nationwide Tour win. ‘You make par, you actually gain a little momentum out of it.’
Grunewald, also seeking his first win, made back-to-back birdies from the fourth hole before dropping a shot at No. 6 with his only bogey of the round. He pulled into a tie for the lead with three birdies in a four-hole stretch from the ninth.
Schultz was the last to join his fellow co-leaders despite a good start. Beginning on the back nine, he birdied 10, 15 and 17 to reach three-under before making a bogey at the 18th. He went birdie-bogey at the fourth and fifth holes, then bounced back with birdies at the seventh and ninth to finish at four-under.
Sitting seven shots off the lead already is defending champion Daniel Summerhays, who became the first-ever amateur to win on the Nationwide Tour when he claimed this event last year.
Summerhays was unable to recover from two double-bogeys on the way to a 3- over 74.
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