Graeme McDowell three off the lead after 68 at Pebble Beach

Graeme McDowell was the best of the Irish after day one of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California as Brian Gay produced an impressive birdie run to take a share of the first-round lead.

McDowell – who claimed the 2010 US Open title at Pebble Beach – is making his first appearance of the calendar year and fed off those good memories on the famous course on Thursday to produce an opening round of 68 which leaves him at four under par and three shots behind leaders Gay and Scott Langley.

The Portrush man faced the tougher of the three tests over which the tournament is played – he will now play Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula over the next two days before the final round is back at Pebble Beach – but he managed to pick up four birdies on his front nine and three more on the way in. However, there will be some frustration in the three bogeys which dotted his card, particularly the six at the 18th where he missed a short par putt.

Further back at one under is Shane Lowry who fought back with two birdies on his back nine at Spyglass Hill after slipping to one over par through 10. Lowry is making his first stateside appearance of the season having won for the first time in four years last month when he claimed the HSBC Abu Dhabi Championship.

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At the top of the leaderboard, Gay got to five under at the turn thanks to five straight birdies from the fifth on the Monterey Peninsula course and had just one blemish on the back nine to fire a seven-under par 64.

Countryman Langley, starting on the back nine, birdied half his holes on the same course, including one on the par-three ninth, to join Gay at seven under.

Five-time major champion Phil Mickelson sits one shot off the lead after making five birdies on the back nine for a 65 as he hit every fairway in a PGA Tour round for the first time since 1998.

He was matched by former world number one Jason Day, who had just one bogey on the par-four 15th before recovering with three birdies in a row.

Englishman Tommy Fleetwood finished two over after a triple-bogey on the 13th at Monterey, while Ryder Cup team-mate Paul Casey mixed four birdies and a bogey at Pebble Beach to card a 69.

Collated first round scores in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Arm, Pebble Beach GC, United States of America (USA unless stated):

Scores from Monterey Peninsula, par 71

64 Scott Langley (USA), Brian Gay (USA)

65 Phil Mickelson (USA), Jason Day (Aus), Matt Every (USA), Kevin Kisner (USA)

66 Dustin Johnson (USA), Austin Cook (USA), Keith Mitchell (USA), Jordan Spieth (USA)

67 Wes Roach (USA), Kenny Perry (USA), Matt Kuchar (USA), Brady Schnell (USA), Seth Reeves (USA), Jonas Blixt (Swe)

68 Steve Stricker (USA), Doug Ghim (USA), Chez Reavie (USA), Talor Gooch (USA), Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Russell Knox (Sco), Patrick Reed (USA), D.J. Trahan (USA)

69 Pat Perez (USA), Charley Hoffman (USA), Beau Hossler (USA), Brendon Todd (USA), Ernie Els (Rsa), Parker McLachlin (USA)

70 Adam Schenk (USA), Ricky Barnes (USA), Adam Scott (Aus), Curtis Luck (Aus), Ryan Armour (USA), Josh Teater (USA), Kevin Streelman (USA)

71 Jerry Kelly (USA), Brian Davis (Eng), Trey Mullinax (USA), Davis Love III (USA), Russell Henley (USA), Ryan Ruffels (Aus), Sungjae Im (Kor)

72 Ho-sung Choi (Kor), Patrick Rodgers (USA), Dominic Bozzelli (USA)

73 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), David Hearn (Can), Jason Gore (USA)

74 Dru Love (USA)

75 D.A. Points (USA)

Scores from Spyglass Hill, par 72

66 Cody Gribble (USA)

67 Scott Stallings (USA), Johnson Wagner (USA), Fabian Gomez (Arg)

68 Lucas Glover (USA), Martin Laird (Sco), Jose de Jesus Rodriguez (Mex)

69 Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Sang-moon Bae (Kor), Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa)

70 Grayson Murray (USA), Ben Crane (USA), J.J. Henry (USA), Michael Thompson (USA), Vaughn Taylor (USA), Ryan Palmer (USA)

71 Hunter Mahan (USA), Matt Jones (Aus), Shane Lowry (Irl), James Hahn (USA)

72 Peter Malnati (USA), Sepp Straka (Aut), John Senden (Aus), Anders Albertson (USA), Martin Piller (USA), Adam Hadwin (Can), Kelly Kraft (USA), Cameron Davis (Aus), Jim Furyk (USA), Rod Pampling (Aus), Michael Kim (USA)

73 Wyndham Clark (USA), Adam Long (USA), Adam Svensson (Can), David Duval (USA), Jason Schmuhl (USA), Tyrone Van Aswegen (Rsa), Cameron Champ (USA)

74 Jim Knous (USA), Whee Kim (Kor), J.J. Spaun (USA), Chase Wright (USA)

75 Andrew Putnam (USA), Jimmy Walker (USA), Corey Conners (Can)

76 Chesson Hadley (USA)

77 Kramer Hickok (USA), Roger Sloan (Can), John Catlin (USA), Brice Garnett (USA)

82 Ted Potter, Jr. (USA)

Scores from Pebble Beach, par 72

66 Si Woo Kim (Kor)

67 Branden Grace (Rsa), Nate Lashley (USA)

68 Graeme McDowell (NIrl), Roberto Castro (USA)

69 Brian Stuard (USA), Chris Stroud (USA), Roberto Diaz (Mex), Sung Kang (Kor), Sam Saunders (USA), Alex Prugh (USA), Tony Finau (USA), Chad Campbell (USA), Paul Casey (Eng), Martin Trainer (USA), Brandt Snedeker (USA), Jonathan Byrd (USA), Nick Taylor (Can), Brandon Harkins (USA)

70 Benjamin Silverman (Can), Scott Piercy (USA)

71 Rory Sabbatini (Svk), Tom Hoge (USA), Julian Etulain (Arg), Hank Lebioda (USA), Joey Garber (USA), Tyler Duncan (USA), Cameron Tringale (USA), Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng)

72 Richy Werenski (USA), Scott Brown (USA), Tom Lovelady (USA), Sebastian Munoz (Col), Kyoung-hoon Lee (Kor), John Huh (USA)

73 Nick Watney (USA), John Rollins (USA), Max Homa (USA), Chad Collins (USA), Chris Thompson (USA), Dylan Frittelli (Rsa)

74 Stephan Jaeger (Ger), Freddie Jacobson (Swe), Broc Everett (USA), Kyle Jones (USA)

75 Derek Fathauer (USA), David Lingmerth (Swe)

76 J.B. Holmes (USA), Alex Cejka (Ger), Steve Jones (USA)

78 John Chin (USA)

81 Robert Garrigus (USA)