Napa, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Andres Gonzales and Sang-Moon Bae fired matching 6-under 66s in Thursday's first round and they share an early 1-shot lead at the Frys.com Open, the first tournament of the season.
Gonzales, who is beginning his third season on the PGA Tour, has never won in 44 career starts. Gonzales played on the Web.com Tour last season and won the Utah Championship. Bae has one career victory on tour, and that came at the Byron Nelson Championship in 2013.
"I've always felt that I've been good enough to be at this level, whether or not I've proven that each year, which I obviously haven't my first two years," Gonzales said. "I've felt that each year, even though I may move down a level, I have improved each year."
Martin Laird carded an opening-round, 5-under 67 and he is in sole possession of third place after the first round on the North Course at Silverado Country Club. Charlie Beljan, Luke Guthrie, David Lingmerth, Colt Knost, Brooks Koepka, Aaron Baddeley, Kyle Reifers, Tyrone Van Aswegen and Jon Curran are all tied for fourth at minus-4.
Defending champion Jimmy Walker, who went on to win two more times on tour last season and earned a spot on the United States Ryder Cup team, is tied for 122nd at 3-over 75.
Playing in the morning groups, Gonzales started his third season on tour strong with a birdie on the par-4 first hole. Following three straight pars, Gonzales made two more gains in a three-hole stretch from No. 5 to get him to minus-3. Gonzales closed out his front nine with a pair of pars.
After making the turn with another par on 10, Gonzales made his fourth birdie on No. 11. He dropped his first and only shot with a bogey on No. 12, but Gonzales responded two holes later with his fifth birdie.
Just like he started, Gonzales finished his first round strong. Following a pair of pars on 15 and 16, Gonzales drained back-to-back birdies on the final two holes to jump into the early lead.
"It's definitely a confidence builder getting out here and starting that way," said Gonzales. "I really feel good about it because I don't think I was as sharp as I could have been, but as far as ball-striking, I scrambled well and got up-and-down. When I did miss fairways, I missed them in the right spot. There's definitely a lot of room to improve, but definitely pleased with the way I've started."
Bae, beginning his round on the back nine, did most of his damage on his first nine holes. A birdie on No. 10 was followed by a bogey on the par-4 12th, dropping him back to even par. Bae's second birdie on No. 14 got him back into red numbers and he finished off his opening nine strong with three straight birdies from No. 16.
Now at minus-4, Bae rattled off four straight pars before pouring in his sixth gain on No. 5. Bae closed things out with three straight pars and a birdie at the last to join Gonzales atop the leaderboard.
"I had a really, really good round, a pretty solid round, and I made a lot of putts and just one bogey today," Bae said. "It was a pretty nice round."
Of the top-three players on the leaderboard, Laird was the only one to shoot a bogey-free round, which included three birdies on the front nine and two more gains on the back.
NOTES: In his 44 career starts on tour, Gonzales has just one top-10 finish and he has missed the cut 27 times ... Bae missed the cut in three of his last four starts heading into this week ... Walker went on to win last year's event despite being six shots back after the first round.
