Seamus Power faces an uphill battle to make the cut after a disappointing back nine at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Power carded a two-over 73 to share 143rd place and is ten shots adrift of early leader Matt Wallace.
Playing the course from back to front, the West Waterford man started well with an opening birdie and he recovered from bogeys on 12 and 16 with back-to-back birdies to turn under par.
Power’s momentum was halted by a double bogey on the par-4 2nd hole and a late bogey on the par-3 7th saw his round unravel.
Wallace leads by one over seven players on eight-under-par after a sublime 63.
“It was great. Really solid day. Got off to a great start. Three birdies to start any tournament is nice,” said the Englishman.
“Just a really solid round of golf. The wind started to pick up at the end, but the course is in amazing condition considering the rain we had and the delay this morning.
“Ball in hand is really important, so drove it nice for the most part. Few times I was in the semi-rough with a bid of mud on the ball which can cause a little bit of doubt.
“Top up on those, really focus on hitting my tee shots well for the next few days and we’ll be in good shape.”
Defending champion Jason Day is in a group, three shots off the pace and he was pleased with his improved iron play.
“Definitely, especially with how the short game was. I mean, one thing that let me down was the short game today. Overall, it’s been nice to be able to improve the irons. I got to actually work on it and try and just keep slowly incrementally working on the stuff that I’m working on right now with Chris, and over time hopefully just sets in and it’s concrete.”