Sonny Skinner, ranked 202nd on the PGA money list and never better than 12th in a tour event, matched a course record to seize a four-stroke lead in the Buick Open in Grand Blanc, Michigan.
The unheralded American fired a 10-under par 62 at Warwick Hills Golf Club to pull away at the $1.5 million event, the final tuneup for next week's PGA Championship and next-to-last Ryder Cup qualifying event.
Nolan Henke stood second at 66 with 10 other players, including Fiji's Vijay Singh and Japan's Joe Ozaki, another stroke back.
Skinner started on the back nine and birdied five of his first eight holes. He was even hotter on the front side with birdies on his final four holes to match Jim Furyk's course record, set in 1995.
First-Round Scores (US unless noted): 62 - S Skinner 31 31; 66 - Nolan Henke 32 34; 67 - J Furyk 35 32, F Funk 34 33, L Wadkins 35 32, H Sutton 35 32, V Singh (Fij) 33 34, R Alarcon (Mex) 34 33, J Ozaki (Jpn) 33 34, D Duval 33 34, J ohn Morse 32 35, C Perry 33 34; 68 - E Els (RSA) 36 32, D Forsman 35 33, R Cochran 34 34, L Mize 35 33, B Fleisher 35 33.
Selected others: 69 - F Nobilo (Nzl) 34 35; 70 - S Elkington (Aus) 36 34, G Hjertstedt (Swe) 35 35; 72 - T Woods 35 37, P Tataurangi (Nzl) 36 36; 77 - J Daly 36 41.
Chris Johnson and Joan Pitcock both made enough birdies, despite a number of mistakes, to shoot four-under-par 68s and share the first-round lead at the USLPGA Friendly's Classic in Massachusetts.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)