Australian Stuart Appleby wasn't perfect, but his first-round 66 was good enough for the first-round lead on Thursday in the 5.5 million-dollar Shell Houston Open.
Appleby seized a one-shot lead over Americans Jerry Smith and DA Points, with his fellow Australians Aaron Baddeley and Stephen Leaney a further shot back alongside Sweden's Mathias Gronberg, Charles Warren and Brent Geiberger.
One of those was on the 17th, where Appleby chipped in from 45 feet for a birdie that tied him with Smith and Points. He took the lead on the final hole when he made a 20-foot birdie on the difficult 472-yard par-4.
Smith had the outright lead before reaching the final hole. He found a bunker with his tee shot and his shot out was short of the green. His third shot came to rest eight feet away from the hole but he was unable to make the par putt.
It was the only mistake of the day for Smith, who had six birdies and the one bogey. Smith also was surprised he played as well as he did.
One person who wasn't stunned by his round was Baddeley.
The 25-year-old Australian won last week's Verizon Heritage and continued the momentum from his first US PGA Tour victory.
Smith hasn't really been able to get into a routine. After working his way back onto the PGA Tour after three years on the Nation-wide Tour, Smith has had to try and get into events whenever possible.
Players who earned their tour cards and got onto the tour via a top-20 finish on the Nationwide Tour list are reshuffled after the West Coast tournaments, and their performance in those events dictates their priority in future ones.
Smith dropped a couple of spots and he was unable to get into all the events he would have liked to.
Appleby had a break, but it was by choice. After finishing tied for 19th at the Masters, he took the following week off and feels more prepared for this event, which he won in 1999.
Clarke finished the first round at four-under, two strokes behind Appleby.
LEADING FIRST-ROUND SCORES (USA unless noted):
66 - Stuart Appleby (AUS)
67 - DA Points, Jerry Smith
68 - Aaron Baddeley (AUS), Brent Geiberger, Mathias Gronberg (SWE), Stephen Leaney (AUS), Charles Warren
69 - Jose Coceres (ARG), John Daly, Jeff Gove, Paul Goydos, Trevor Immelman (RSA), Fredrik Jacobson (SWE), Frank Lickliter, Hunter Mahan, Scott McCarron, Greg Owen (GBR), Jesper Parnevik (SWE), Ted Purdy, Vijay Singh (FIJ)
70 - Mathew Goggin (AUS)
71 - Henrik Bjornstad (NOR), KJ Choi (KOR), Padraig Harrington (IRL), Thomas Levet (FRA), John Senden (AUS), Hidemichi Tanaka (JPN), Mike Weir (CAN)
72 - Greg Chalmers (AUS), Gabriel Hjertstedt (SWE), Richard S. Johnson (SWE), Graeme McDowell (NIR), Ian Poulter (GBR), Camilo Villegas (COL)
73 - Daisuke Maruyama (JPN), Craig Perks (73), Phil Tataurangi (NZL), Tjaart Van Der Walt (RSA)
74 - Daniel Chopra (SWE), David McKenzie (AUS), Jon Mills (CAN)
75 - Gavin Coles (AUS), Ryuji Imada (JPN), Ian Leggatt (CAN)
76 - Brian Davis (GBR)
77 - Nathan Green (AUS), Kevin Na (KOR)
80 - Steven Bowditch (AUS)
Darren Clarke (NIR) 34-34-WD.
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