The 32-year-old \u2013 a four-time winner on the PGA Tour, whose last triumph came five years ago at Pebble Beach \u2013 picked up three birdies on the front nine, but caught fire with six coming in. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Two of the three Australians in the field have also started well with Adam Scott continuing his purple patch of form.<\/p>\n
Scott carded a four under, 68 to finish the first round inside the top five while compatriot Min Woo Lee is a shot back on three under.<\/p>\n
Berger rolled in three straight birdies starting on the 10th, before adding another with an 11-foot putt at the par-three 14th, and two more birdies on the 16th and 18th for a bogey-free round of 63. <\/p>\n
The early pace setter sits three clear of recent Pebble Beach champion Collin Morikawa and Sweden\u2019s Ludvig Aberg.<\/p>\n
World number one Scottie Scheffler shot 70, while Rory McIlroy \u2013 gearing up to defend his Masters title next month \u2013 finished on even-par after an erratic round featuring five birdies and a double bogey. <\/p>\n
Berger, who missed three months of golf last fall after breaking the ring finger on his right hand on a shot at the BMW Championshipin August, said \u201cthe biggest thing for me is just getting in a bit of a rhythm.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you come back you\u2019re just kind of getting back into the flow of things and getting into your routine,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve really played not really that poorly, and just haven\u2019t had the results,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The broken finger was just the latest injury setback for Berger, who missed 10 months over 2022 and 2023 with back issuesand struggled for consistency when he returned in 2024. <\/p>\n
The native Floridian predicted conditions would be \u201cincredibly difficult and challenging\u201d for the rest of the week at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can already see the greens are like white. So a little bit of wind, a little bit less moisture, and it\u2019s just going to be like a US Open,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you come to Bay Hill to play this event you know what you\u2019re getting, and so it doesn\u2019t shock me. You\u2019re ready for it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Daniel Berger was flawless in the opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
Morikawa, a two-time major winner who ended a two-year title drought with a victory at Pebble Beach in February, surged late for his six-under round. <\/p>\n
He hit a flush seven-iron into the par-five 16th and holed a 15-foot eagle putt before birdies at 17 and 18 \u2013 where he drained a 27-foot putt. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hit three 7-irons to finish the day, three birdies, I\u2019ll take it,\u201d said Morikawa, who finished runner-up at last year\u2019s Arnold Palmer Invitational, despite leading eventual winner Russell Henley by three strokes with five holes to play. <\/p>\n
Aberg was delighted with his 66 in swirling winds on a notoriously tricky course, describing leader Berger\u2019s 63 as \u201cquite unbelievable.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI was not trying to be overly aggressive. I wasn\u2019t trying to be overly conservative either, but it was tricky with the crosswind and kind of going back and forth,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOverall really pleased with the score.\u201d <\/p>\n
Scheffler was left to rue \u201ca couple mistakes that I shouldn\u2019t have made\u201d in his two-under effort, which also included three birdies. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnything under par on this golf course is a decent score,\u201d added the American, who has switched to a new driver this week in a quest for more accuracy off the tee. <\/p>\n
McIlroy found the water with his approach iron on the par-four 13th. Forced to take a drop, he again missed the green and had to settle for a double bogey. <\/p>\n
His turbulent round also included bogeys on the fifth and 18th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American Daniel Berger made nine birdies in a flawless round as he stormed to an impressive three-stroke lead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-521872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}