Fresh from his inclusion into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Fiji’’s Vijay Singh opened the defence of his Shell Houston Open title in record style, firing a flawless eight under par 64 to grab the first round lead at the Redstone Golf Club, Texas.
England’’s Greg Owen also made a strong start with a five under par 67 to lie just three strokes off the pace.
The World Number Two closed out his bogey-free round with birdies on three of his final four holes to match the course record and take a one shot lead over Australians Gavin Coles and Brendan Jones.
"It sets up for longer hitters if you're hitting the ball straight," Singh said. "Today was a great example. I drove the ball pretty straight and pretty long. When you do that, you have a lot of looks at the holes for birdies.”
A winner at Houston in two of last three years, Singh's start was ten shots better than his opening round of 12 months ago as he bids to become the first back-to-back winner of one of the US PGA Tour's oldest events.
His two stroke victory over Scott Hoch last year provided the spark that ignited one of the greatest seasons in golf history as Singh went on to claim nine titles, over $10 million and the Number One World Ranking from Tiger Woods.
