Shane Lowry made a positive start at the Wyndham Championship as he attempts to qualify for the Fed Ex play-offs for a fifth straight season.
The former Open champion is ranked 76th in the standings and needs to climb inside the top 70 after the field for next week's first play-off event was reduced from 125.
Lowry's two-under opening round of 68, leaves him six shots off the first round leader Russell Henley who posted a flawless eight-under 62.
In wet conditions, Lowry, who started on the 10th tee, opening with five straight pars before a birdie at the par-five 15th moved him under par for his round.
A bogey followed at one after finding sand off the tee, but back-to-back birdies at the fifth and sixth left him in a good position heading into round two.
Leader Henley used a short eagle putt and six birdies to leap in front of the pack in the first round in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Henley leads by just one stroke over Canada's Adam Svensson and South Korea's Byeong Hun An at the PGA Tour's regular-season finale at Sedgefield Country Club.
Andrew Novak is in fourth on six under, while Australian veteran Adam Scott shot a five-under 65 during the morning wave and held the lead for much of the day before Henley and company overtook him in the afternoon. Scott is now tied with JT Poston for fifth.
Scott, like Lowry, is among the dozens of players who entered the tournament outside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup points standings and trying to play their way into the playoffs, which start next week at the FedEx St Jude Championship.
Scott is number 81 in the standings and would squeak in at number 68 if the current results held.
Justin Thomas (number 79 in points) opened with an even-par 70 and is in danger of missing the cut for the sixth time in his past eight starts.
