Wells Fargo Championship 2016: Thursday Leaderboard Scores and Highlights

Steve Wheatcroft and Andrew Loupe set the pace through 18 holes at the 2016 Wells Fargo Championship on Thursday.   

They hold a one-shot lead over Anirban Lahiri at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina:

Wheatcroft and Loupe teed off in the same group, which made their battle for first place all the more entertaining. Wheatcroft looked to be in the driver's seat before Loupe birdied No. 17 to earn a share of the lead.

Loupe was the more consistent of the two, failing to card a single bogey and reaching the green in regulation on 13 holes. He set an impressive pace for himself, going five under through the front nine alone. The pace was unsustainable, though, and he cooled off a bit over the remainder of the round.

Wheatcroft, on the other hand, was excellent for the most part but had a few blemishes on his scorecard, namely bogeys on Nos. 2 and 14. The good far outweighed the bad, though, which tends to happen when a golfer picks up two eagles in the same round.

Ryan Baroff of DailyOverlay.com wasn't the only person surprised to see the 38-year-old surging up the leaderboard:

Lahiri nearly made it a three-way tie for first. He was already done by the time Wheatcroft and Loupe were wrapping up, and had he birdied either 17 or 18, he would have ended the day atop the leaderboard. Back-to-back birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 put Lahiri in a position to challenge for the lead. The PGA Tour shared a replay of the approach that set up his birdie putt:

ESPN.com's Jason Sobel noted it's been a good last few weeks for the 28-year-old:

ESPN 730's Bobby Rosinski had some fun with what was a relatively anonymous top three:

For the most part, the field's biggest stars struggled.

Rickie Fowler looked to be in contention after starting with three birdies through the first six holes of the back nine. A double bogey on No. 17 took some of the wind out of his sails, though, and the 27-year-old never recovered.

Fowler bogeyed the fourth hole and got back under par with a birdie on No. 7, posting a one-under 71 for the round.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy was the opposite in that he needed a strong finish after making the turn to compensate for a slow start. Sitting at four over through his first nine holes, McIlroy then reeled off four birdies on the front nine, with his fortunes beginning to turn around on No. 2:

He also narrowly missed out on a hole-in-one on the sixth hole, via the PGA Tour's official Twitter account:

McIlroy finished one over and is tied for 75th. His chances of repeating at Quail Hollow are slim, but they could have been much worse had he not regrouped over his final nine holes.

Phil Mickelson, meanwhile, is right in the thick of things after posting a three-under 69 and earning a share of ninth place. This is Lefty's first tournament since missing the cuts at the Masters and Valero Texas Open. Taking that into account, he should be more than satisfied with his start to the tournament.

While some golf fans will be a bit disappointed with the lack of star power leading the field at the Wells Fargo Championship, seeing whether Wheatcroft or Loupe can maintain a title challenge will make for entertaining television over the coming days.

Loupe has just three top-10 finishes in 15 PGA Tour events this year, while Wheatcroft hasn't finished higher than 36th in any of his 15 appearances. Both have a chance to kick-start their campaigns at Quail Hollow.

Post-Round Reaction

McIlroy hadn't played a competitive round of golf since the Masters in April, and that rustiness showed Thursday.

"I was sort of still in range mode on the front nine there," he said after hitting the clubhouse, per John Strege of Golf Digest. "I didn't really have my scoring head on. I was thinking about my golf swing and just trying to make good swings at it and I sort of got caught up in that a little bit."

Wheatcroft knows how important a victory at the Wells Fargo Championship would be for him personally as he looks to qualify for the U.S. Open. He called the possibility of playing in that tournament "a dream come true," per Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer.

"If I could win it could open the doors," he said. "Maybe I could get a couple other high finishes before the deadline. You never know."

Loupe, however, will hope Wheatcroft starts slowing down Friday.

"Kind of felt like I was trying to keep up the whole time with Steve," Loupe said after the round, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com). "We both had it rolling early. Just solid golf for the most part, just looking to keep that momentum going."