Golf

Luke Donald and Branden Grace share lead at Hilton Head

Former champion Graeme McDowell cards 74 after poor finish in South Carolina

Luke Donald plays his second shot on the first hole during the first round of the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Photograph: Jared Tilton/Getty Images
Fri Apr 15 2016 - 01:33

Luke Donald shot a first-round 66 to take a share of the lead at the RBC Heritage Open in South Carolina.

The Englishman has struggled this season, managing only one top-25 finish and missing out on the Masters after dropping to 92nd in the rankings.

But at a course where he has finished second on three occasions, the 38-year-old former world number one found form with six birdies and one bogey to join Branden Grace on six under par.

World number one Jason Day would have joined the duo at the top of the leaderboard but he bogeyed the 18th after finding a bunker to slip to four under, alongside Matt Kuchar, David Lingmerth and Tony Finau.

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Donald birdied two of his three holes at Harbour Town Golf Links and picked up another at the sixth before a bogey on the eighth.

Further birdies on 11, 13 and 17 took him level with Grace, whose dropped shot on the 16th denied him the outright lead.

Donald told pgatour.com: “I played really nice golf today. I kept it in play, hit a lot of greens and made a couple of putts. It was one of those rounds you wish you had every day. It was nice to shoot a good score.

“There’s a long way to go. I would obviously love to win this tournament – I’ve come very close before – and it’s nice to get off to a solid start.”

South African Grace started with back-to-back birdies and picked up further shots at five, nine, 13 and 15 as he chases a maiden PGA Tour victory.

Bryson DeChambeau shot a one-under 70 in his first round as a professional, two strokes ahead of English duo Ian Poulter and Matthew Fitzpatrick.

Graeme McDowell, winner of the event in 2013, finished bogey-bogey to card an opening round of three-over 74, while Paul Casey struggled following his top-five finish at Augusta, with three bogeys and a double bogey seeing the Englishman sitting on four over.