Stewart Cink opened with a 7-under-par 64 and grabbed a one-shot lead Friday at the Stifel Charity Classic in St. Louis.
Cink placed third last year at Norwood Hills Country Club, when the event was still called the Ascension Charity Classic. He displayed his liking for the course on Friday by rolling in four birdies on each nine and limiting himself to just one bogey, though he felt that he scored better than he played.
"It wasn't the kind of round that's really sustainable," Cink said. "Definitely want to clean things up. I think if I – I would say if I played exactly the same way as today, I would expect more of a 3 or 4 under round instead of a lower score like I got."
Cink leads Denmark's Thomas Bjorn (65), and Cink's birdie at the par-4 18th hole made all the difference.
"I put my drive way right, bad shot, and the one saving grace about the area over there was that I was on a bare patch of really hard dirt where I could at least get the club on the ball and do something with it," Cink explained.
"I actually wasn't trying to get it up on the green, I was trying to get it front left down in the fairway rough to get it up and down because it's just where the hole location was, it was a pretty easy third shot from short of the green and left. And the ball just came out like a dream. Had a little more cut on it than I meant to, perfect trajectory and just rolled right up there to the front edge."
Cink, 52, has won three times on the PGA Tour Champions, including the tour's most recent tournament, the Ally Challenge.
Bjorn's round featured one bogey and seven birdies, including three in a row at Nos. 15-17.
"I think you've got to drive the ball really well here," Bjorn said. "Being in those fairways, then the golf course kind of sets up for you and the approaches become a lot easier. Going into these greens from the rough becomes quite difficult. So driving is a real big premium on driving this week."
Last year's champion, Y.E. Yang of South Korea, is tied with India's Arjun Atwal for third at 5-under 66. A large tie at 4-under 67 includes Angel Cabrera of Argentina, Ernie Els of South Africa and Alex Cejka of Germany.