Barbasol Championship 2015: Leaderboard Scores and Highlights from Thursday

While most of the golfing world's sights were set on the Old Course at St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland, for the British Open, the PGA Tour was keeping busy stateside with the Barbasol Championship getting underway on Thursday. 

Giving professional golfers a second option if they choose not to enter the British Open, this is the first Barbasol Championship ever held.

Set at Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Grand National in Auburn-Opelika, Alabama, here is Thursday's leaderboard and a look at some of the top performers of the day. 

Place	Golfer	Rd. 1 Score
1	Sam Saunders	-7 (64)
2	Jason Gore	-6 (65)
T3	Martin Flores	-5 (66)
T3	Maverick McNealy (a)	-5 (66)
T3	Will Wilcox	-5 (66)
T3	Carlos Ortiz	-5 (66)
T3	Carlos Sainz Jr.	-5 (66)
T8	Erik Compton	-4 (67)
T8	Ricky Barnes	-4 (67)
T8	Whee Kim	-4 (67)
T8	Michael Thompson	-4 (67)
T8	Boo Weekley	-4 (67)

Sam Saunders took the early lead at the Barbasol Championship by shooting a seven-under 64 in the first round.     

Starting on the back nine, Saunders birdied four of five holes from Nos. 13-17 before going three under on the front. His bogey-free round was historic for him, as PGA Tour Media pointed out:

He was able to drive the ball well, averaging 301.5 yards with his accuracy percentage at just over 64 percent. 

But his greens in regulation percentage was at a high mark of 88.89 percent as he was finding his way near the pin in an efficient manner.

Trailing Saunders by a stroke, Jason Gore also had a quick start on the back nine, going four under. But two bogeys on Nos. 2 and 4 looked to have turned his great day into a mediocre one.

But he came alive on his last five holes, birdieing four of them, including three straight from hole No. five to No. 7 to finish up with a six-under 65.

Among those tied for third at three under is Martin Flores, whose shot shown here on No. 15 by Will Sammon of the Opelika-Auburn News brought him to his day's score of five under:

He dropped to six under on the next hole to move into second place but bogeyed 18 to move back down to a tie for third.

One of the players tied with him is an amateur, Maverick McNealy of Stanford University, who used five birdies and an eagle on the fifth hole to put him at five under for the day.    

Saunders is attempting to record just his second top-10 finish of his PGA Tour career since turning pro in 2009. His first also happened this year, when he finished second at the Puerto Rico Open in March. He might be leading a weak enough field where he can finish wire-to-wire in first and take the inaugural Barbasol Championship.

Stats courtesy of PGATour.com.