Houston Open leader Scott Piercy has thoughts of Masters

HOUSTON — After his record-tying round Thursday, Scott Piercy let his thoughts drift toward qualifying for the Masters Tournament with a win this week.

Piercy tied a tournament record with 9-under-par 63 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Houston Open.

“It’s the first round,” he said. “If I’m sitting here Sunday, then I’ll be super-excited. If I (keep playing) like I did today, I would say there’s a pretty good chance of that.”

Alex Cejka, in an afternoon group, made four birdies on his back nine – the course’s front nine – to finish one stroke behind Piercy.

Cejka is not in the Masters either.

J. B. Holmes is next at 65.

Phil Mickelson, Luke Guthrie, Augusta native Charles Howell and Houston’s Shawn Stefani each shot 66 and trail Piercy by three strokes.

Piercy, who made five birdies in a row over one torrid stretch during the middle of his round, became only the fifth player to card 63 since this PGA Tour stop moved to the Golf Club of Houston Tournament Course in 2003. Two of the others, Mickelson in 2011 and Johnson Wagner in 2008, went on to win.

The 36-year-old Piercy, from Las Vegas, missed only one green in regulation and needed just 26 putts. Two days earlier, however, feeling so discouraged by the way he’d been playing of late that it crossed his mind while he was out grinding on the driving range “to go home and not waste my time.”

Piercy, instead, decided to keep practicing. He wound up hitting golf balls for “12, 13 hours. ... In the 13th hour, something kind of clicked and I kind of figured it out. On Wednesday, I kind of ingrained it, kept working and got pretty good. Today was awesome. It really was.”

Teeing off 20 minutes before Piercy, Mickelson made himself the early front-runner by chipping in for birdie on his first hole, then turning the corner at 3-under, about the time Piercy began his birdie run. Mickelson reached 7-under at one point but bogeyed the par-three ninth, his final hole.

Mickelson, one of 36 players in the Houston field who is headed to Augusta National next week, had skidded to a final-round 76 Sunday in the Texas Open and tied for 30th.

So, his late lapse here notwithstanding, Mickelson called his effort “a good round, a good start to the tournament. I got off to a quick start, birdieing three of the first four holes, and kept it going.

“The course is in pristine condition. The greens being soft are going to allow us to get more aggressive (aiming for) the pins and make some more birdies. The scores are going to be low” he said. “I’m just glad I was one of them.”