England’s Aaron Rai has birdied two of his remaining three holes to shoot an eight-under 63 and take a one-stroke lead over Viktor Hovland after the first-round of the rain-delayed Heritage.
Rai was amongst six golfers who couldn’t full play resulting from a virtually 90-minute stoppage resulting from rain on Thursday however he returned on Friday morning in glowing kind.
Rai rolled in an 11-foot birdie putt on the 16th gap to tie Hovland quickly after the restart.
He then took the lead with a 17-foot birdie putt on Harbor City Golf Hyperlinks’ famed No.18 lighthouse gap.
“It feels good,” Rai stated after ending. “Performed actually properly. Can take lots of positives from the way in which that we performed tee to inexperienced and made just a few good putts as properly.”
Hovland had opened with a 64 on Thursday and was looking for a first-round lead for the second straight week after tying for first by means of one spherical on the Masters.
Two photographs behind have been Brian Harman and Jimmy Walker at 65.
Six others have been one other shot behind at 66, together with reigning US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, US Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson, Justin Rose, Scott Stallings, Sungjae Im and Joel Dahmen.
Masters champion Jon Rahm bought off to a sluggish begin with a one-over 72. The Spaniard was quickly again on the course for the second spherical as he tried to get again into rivalry.
