Finding birdies has never been an issue for Stuart Appleby.
Maybe the nine-time US PGA Tour winner has found his ideal tournament in Reno, Nevada.
The Victorian veteran, the only Australian to have broken 60 in a US PGA Tour round, poured in eight birdies on the Montreux course today to sit just one off the pace in the Barracuda Championship.
With limited starts on the big tour this year, Appleby took full advantage of the “opposite field” event’s modified stableford format to charge to +14 alongside Argentine Miguel Angel Carballo and trailing John Huh by just one point.
Also in the mix at +11 (T9) is defending champion Greg Chalmers, of Perth, who also carded seven birdies but dropped in a double-bogey on the course where he broke his 385-start drought on the PGA Tour last year.
Among a swag of Aussies in the field, Matt Jones, Curtis Luck and Peter Lonard all shot +6 (T48), while Aaron Baddeley and Brett Drewitt signed for +5 totals (T64).
Geoff Ogilvy and Rob Allenby each had +3 rounds (T86), while Steve Bowditch sits at +2 and Cam Percy at +1.