Frys.com Open 2015: Thursday Leaderboard Scores and Highlights

Brendan Steele did not waste any time making his mark at the first event of the 2015-16 PGA Tour season. Steele carded seven birdies in his first nine holes, pushing his way to the top of the leaderboard before finishing with a nine-under 63 at the first round of the Frys.com Open on Thursday.

The 32-year-old California native holds a one-stroke lead over Jhonattan Vegas, who also took advantage of favorable morning conditions to shoot a 64. Harold Varner III and Martin Laird currently sit in third place at seven under, with Varner playing his last three holes at four under.

There was clear separation on the leaderboard between those who played morning and afternoon rounds. Laird and Scott Langley, who is at five under and tied for seventh place, are the only golfers inside the top 10 who began their days after noon. All the others took advantage of a Silverado Country Club course that was softer and more forgiving early in the day.

Steele, who is among the players transitioning away from the controversial belly putter, showed no signs of trouble. Opening on the back nine, he carded birdies on Nos. 11 and 12 before making the turn with a string of five straight birdies starting with No. 14. While it helped that Steele was deadly accurate with his approaches—he missed just one green in regulation—he finally seemed to find comfort on the green.

“Keegan (Bradley) and I have talked about this a lot,” said Steele, who made the switch in 2014, per Ryan Lavner of Golf Channel. "Basically, everybody is thousands of hours of practice behind with the short putter. So that’s where everybody has to kind of catch up. We have to outwork everybody now to pick up those little idiosyncrasies that we’ve missed over the last eight or 10 years.”

Playing the back nine low was key for nearly every player on the leaderboard. Six of the nine holes played below par for the day, including each of the last five. The course's par fives were also major boosts for players, with all four holes playing at least 0.3 strokes under par.

For his part, Vegas carded six birdies against a single bogey on his way to a back-nine 31. The 31-year-old Venezuelan overcame poor driving accuracy and even some shaky iron play, mostly coming through on the green. He eagled the par-five fifth for his final under-par score of the morning and will be looking to win his second tour event this weekend.

Justin Rose is the only top-10 player on the leaderboard after going five under. Like most of the leaders, Rose had fun on the course's home stretch, birdieing Nos. 16 through 18 before making the turn to play his front nine. He added three more birdies on the front nine and boasted some uncharacteristic strength off the tee.

“Last year was the first year I’ve been inside the top 20 in driving,” Rose said, per Lavner. “And I feel like my game is in the right place. I feel like I have five great years ahead of me.”

Rose was one of two playing partners (the other being Brandt Snedeker) for Rory McIlroy, who went four under in his first round of the new season. The world's third-ranked golfer is among a drove of players who are tied for 13th place. He posted five birdies against a single bogey, with his putter ultimately costing him a number of strokes. Getting on the green in regulation on all but one hole, McIlroy had several opportunities to knock down reasonable putts but failed.

"It's definitely better—better from tee to green than I was at the Tour Championship a couple of weeks ago, so it's definitely a step in the right direction," McIlroy said, per the Daily Mail. "I didn't hole many putts—I holed a few—but if I can get the putter going over the next three days hopefully I can get up the leaderboard a bit."

The PGA Tour provided a clip of his full interview:

Justin Ray of Golf Channel pointed out we should be looking for McIlroy to compete into the weekend:

If he competes deep into the weekend, it'll be an opportunity for McIlroy to gain ground on Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, who both took the Frys.com Open off. In fact, McIlroy is the only top-five player and one of just two top-10 guys (with Rose being the other) in the field this weekend.

After both carded solid opening rounds, there's hope that they'll be pushing the top of the leaderboard for the next three. That said, if Round 1 was any indication, it might be a who's who of "Who's that?" taking down McIlroy and Rose come Sunday.