Padraig Harrington and Seamus Power have both made a strong start to the Shell Houston Open, keeping their hopes of grabbing the last place on offer for next week’s Masters.
Harrington and Power join Shane Lowry, Paul Dunne in the field with the quartet all chasing a tournament win that would earn them the final spot at Augusta National.
Lowry and Dunne were among the late starters but both Harrington and Power made light of testing weather conditions, with the pair both shooting rounds of 67s to sit two shots behind the clubhouse leaders on -5.
Harrington, who has twice finished fifth in the Masters but has not played the year's first major since 2015, carded five birdies in a bogey-free 67 to finish a shot ahead of Henrik Stenson and Jordan Spieth.
Power managed six birdies but dropped a shot on the par-4 12th, and finished a shot ahead of Henrik Stenson and Jordan Spieth.
"I'm happy with it," Harrington said afterwards. "I haven't been shooting too many good scores, so yeah, very pleased. No boggies, that's always nice.
"To be honest for most of it, it was pretty straight-forward, I didn't get myself in much trouble. It was stress free.
"I started on the back nine and through the first 14 holes I wasn’t out of position and had a lot of birdie chances. If it was my day I could have been three or four better.
"I struggled a little on the last four holes, it was my ‘normal’ golf on the last four holes. But I liked what I saw.
"I know what I need to do which is always in a nice place to be," he added. "It's more focus related than anything else, I'm happy enough with where my swing is going, I just need to focus better."
Former US Open champion Lucas Glover and Kevin Tway set the clubhouse target of -7 on an opening day delayed by two hours due to more than two inches of raining falling overnight.
Glover and Tway both fired seven birdies in opening rounds of 65 to enjoy a one-shot lead over Rickie Fowler, Rod Pampling and Julian Suri on an opening day delayed by two hours due to more than two inches of raining falling overnight.
Fowler, who held the outright lead following an opening 64 last year before eventually finishing third, carded seven birdies and a solitary bogey in his 66 as he warmed up in style for next week's Masters.
