England's Paul Waring said he felt he was getting better even while missing cuts in recent tournaments.
He showed signs of solid play during the first round of the Texas Children's Houston Open on Thursday. Waring shot a 7-under-par 63 without a bogey to hold the lead.
"I think I've just been told I holed over 160 foot of putts today, which is massive and gives you a massive advantage," Waring said.
Waring is one stroke ahead of Gary Woodland, who was one of the final golfers to finish the round.
Sam Burns, Michael Brennan and Tom Hoge all shot 65s at Memorial Park Golf Course to land in a tie for third.
Six of Waring's seven birdies came on par-4 layouts. He started on the back nine, had a 40-foot birdie putt on No. 18, and later added a 31-foot birdie putt on No. 5.
The result was Waring's first sub-70 round of the year.
"This is a proper long golf course," he said. "It's a lot more mid-irons and short irons, and as I say, you've got to putt well if you're going to put a round like that together."
Woodland played without a bogey until his 16th hole of the day -- No. 7 -- though he bounced back with birdies on the last two holes. He made a birdie putt at the par-3 ninth from inside 10 feet.
"I think the best thing I did was I carried the momentum over from last week," Woodland said, referring to the Valspar Championship. "I got a lot of confidence last week."
Woodland tied for second place last year in this tournament.
"The golf course sets up very well for me," he said. "Allows me to be aggressive, to play to my strengths right now. I'm looking forward to getting out there again."
Burns overcame one bogey on both the front and back nine. Like Woodland, the Texas native finished birdie-birdie at Nos. 8-9.
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"My body hadn't really cooperated so far this year," Burns said. "So try to make sure my body's feeling good and trying to kind of build on that."
Hoge said it might be huge that he had a low score for the first round.
"It played pretty tough with the wind out there," he said. "It's going to be a battle the next few days."
England's Marco Penge (66) had a bogey-free round and is tied for sixth place with Kurt Kitayama, Germany's Stephan Jaeger, England's Matt Wallace and China's Zecheng Dou at 4 under.
"This golf course sets up pretty nice for me off the tee," Penge said. "I can kind of give it a good rip."
Rickie Fowler, who needs a strong result this week or a win in next week's Valero Texas Open in order to qualify for next month's Masters, posted 67.
"I wouldn't say I did anything amazing," Fowler said. "Short game was good. Made a couple nice up-and-downs, which definitely helps kind of keep momentum if I had much."
Tony Finau slipped late with a bogey on the final hole following two pars to leave him at 67.
Australia's Karl Vilips, who had birdies on five of the first 12 holes, appeared poised to charge toward the top until going 3 over with three bogeys on his last five holes to finish 2 under.
Cole Hammer, competing in his hometown, hit a hole-in-one on the 15th hole, setting the tone for his 3-under 67 to land in the 20-player pile-up in a tie for 11th.
Defending champion Min Woo Lee of Australia shot 68.
Brooks Koepka, who helped redesign the course, finished with 75.
--Field Level Media