Mathew Goggin charged to the lead on seven-under-par after the first round at the Memorial tournament on Thursday.
'The first 10 holes I played pure,' the Australian, who was playing without a hangover, said after compiling eight birdies for his 65 in delightful conditions at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
Kenny Perry and Jerry Kelly were tied for second after 66s, with Brett Quigley and Rod Pampling two behind and English duo Luke Donald and Justin Rose among those tied for sixth on four under following 68s.
Goggin, a renowned ball-striker whose chipping and putting has prevented him from winning on the PGA Tour, had no trouble with his short game, taking just 22 putts on some of the smoothest greens in the world.
Starting on the back nine, Goggin recorded successive birdies on the 11th and 12th before his solitary bogey of the day on 13 was immediately cancelled out with a birdie-three on the 14th.
A birdie on 18 left him three under through nine before four birdies in five holes from the fourth through to the eighth.
It is Goggin's first appearance at the Jack Nicklaus-hosted event, although he was here once before, nine years ago, staying at a house adjacent to the course with Jack's son Gary.
'We were going to play the course the next day and I was all fired up,' Goggin recalled. 'It was my birthday and we got so drunk.
'We had a big night and I had such a bad hangover we decided to pull the pin (after eight holes) and get out of the sun.'
Perry, meanwhile, was only trying to lag his birdie putts on the ultra-quick greens, but the hole kept getting in the way.
'My lags just kept going in the hole,' said Perry, a two-time winner here.
Needing just 22 strokes on the greens, he ran in nine birdies, including six in a row from the 11th hole, a rare experience for the 47-year-old veteran.
'That was probably a first for me,' he said of his six-birdie run. 'I don't know if I've ever done that in my 22 years out here. I'm not a guy known for making putts, so to see a lot go in was a great day for me.
'I just kept pouring them in from 20 feet like they were two-footers. I was not thinking about making any of those putts. I was easing them down there and they just kept finding the middle of the hole.'
With the punishing rough resembling a typical United States Open set-up, accuracy off the tee was of the utmost importance. Perry strayed from the fairway only three times, but made bogey each time he missed the short grass.
'There's such a premium on hitting fairways out there,' he said. 'I'm playing less (club) off the tee just to stay away from those fairway bunkers.'
Quigley, meanwhile, was relaxing at home on Tuesday when he received a call saying that he was in the field after a bunch of late withdrawals.
He arrived at the course at 4pm on Wednesday and played just a handful of holes to check it out, after hearing that it was 'doomsday out there.'
But it was not doomsday on Thursday, as he made his move with five straight birdies from the fifth hole to turn at five under, before negotiating the back nine in even par.
'The thing I like about this course is that if you play well you can shoot some good scores,' he said.
'But if you're a little off, you can make bogey or double on any hole out here, so it can certainly bite you.'
A tired Phil Mickelson shot 72, just four days after his sensational last-gasp victory at Colonial.
'I knew today was going to be tough because I didn't have a great three days heading in,' he said.
'I was tired and didn't have a chance to rest and get ready.
'So I was just trying to hang in there. I hit a lot of sloppy shots but I also hit some good ones.
'Now I've got an opportunity to work on my game this afternoon and be ready for the last three rounds.'
Sergio Garcia also shot 72 in his first start since winning the Players Championship.
