Prugh leads by 2 at Air Capital Classic

Wichita, KS – Alex Prugh eagled his final hole on Thursday to close out an 8-under 63 and grab a 2-stroke lead at the Air Capital Classic.

Prugh is coming off back-to-back top-six finishes at the Mid-Atlantic Championship and Mexico Championship.

"The wind was a little weird," Prugh said about the conditions on Thursday. "We seemed to have a lot of crosswinds and we were getting a few gusts here and there. But I figured out early that it wasn't enough wind to affect the ball a lot."

Mike Lavery sits in second place following his 6-under 65 during the opening round at Crestview Country Club.

Eric Axley, Jason Gore and Dustin Garza share third at minus-5, while Kyle Reifers bogeyed three of his final four holes to fall into a group of seven players tied for sixth at 4-under 67.

Prugh parred his first two holes before getting into red numbers with a birdie at the third.

Consecutive birdies at the sixth and seventh moved him to 3-under and after parring his next six holes, Prugh reeled off three straight birdies from the 14th to meet Lavery and Reifers atop the leaderboard.

Reifers had started on the back nine and picked up shots at the 10th, 14th, 17th and 18th to hit the turn at minus-4 before adding a pair of birdies at the second and third.

Reifers made it three in a row with another birdie at the fourth to take the outright lead at 7-under, but he could not hang on as he bogeyed the sixth, eighth and ninth to fall off the pace.

Prugh, meanwhile, followed a par at the 17th by hitting his second shot at the par-5 18th to three feet of the hole and he kicked in the eagle to grab the outright lead.

"It's the start of the week, you need to get off to a good start, and fortunately I did," said Prugh.

Earlier in the day, Lavery opened his bogey-free round with a par at the first before rolling in back-to-back birdies at the second and third.

After parring the next four holes, he picked up another shot at the eighth and followed that with birdies at the 10th and 11th.

He then birdied the 14th to reach 6-under and closed with four straight pars to end there.

"Based on year's past you need to keep it going out here," Lavery said. "If the wind stays up and I keep playing the way I'm playing, I'll be in good shape."

NOTES: Prugh is the second straight person to post a 63 in the first round of this event. Casey Wittenberg fired a 63 in the opening round last year en route to the win ... Wittenberg is not in the field this week to defend his title ... Six players posted bogey-free rounds on Thursday, including Gore, who did it for the first time this year.