MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. The first round of the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic was played largely in parentheses. Rain fell on the front nine and slowed the middle, pushing the afternoon into pause: the horn at 3:24, a 48-minute wait, then resumed play under preferred lies. By the time lightning moved far enough to release the field, the day had a single narrative that mattered. Martin Laird, 43 years old and in the 420th start of a career that has wandered in and out of contention for two decades, signed for a 7-under 64 and stood alone atop the leaderboard.
Nine birdies on the card. Zero bogeys to spoil them. A round, in other words, that came from another era of his golf.
The moment the course opened
The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, softened by rain and governed by preferred lies, spent Thursday offering gifts to anyone willing to visit greens in regulation. Laird was willing. He made eight putts from beyond 10 feet, the most in any round of his TOUR career. One more and he would have matched the single-round record for putts holed from that range, a mark only three players have ever reached. On a firm course eight long putts made might read as ordinary. On Thursday at Myrtle Beach it was the mark of a hand that had found something.
Nine birdies, no bogeys, each executed with the economy of a man who has spent 420 starts learning where to aim. It equaled his most birdies or better in any round on TOUR, and the 64 stands as the 10th-best round of a career that spans 1,308 TOUR rounds and nine trips of 63 or lower. A 64 at age 43 in a week when the wind runs 14 to 18 mph and the course keeps itself just firm enough to demand precision is not an accident of bounce. It is a statement of possession.
The second tier
One shot back, at 6-under, sits a pair who have never led here before. Aaron Rai, an Englishman making his tournament debut, posted a 65 with nine birdies of his own, tying his most birdies in a single round on TOUR. Highest-ranked player in the field at No. 42 in the world, Rai arrives as the clearest credential. But credentials do not cure leads at this event. The arithmetic that governs first-round frontrunners has sent Laird away seven times before. He has returned home from each one empty-handed, his best result a tie for second at the 2012 PLAYERS Championship. The mathematics do not yet change for Rai simply by proximity.
Keita Nakajima, a PGA TOUR rookie from Japan, matched Rai's card with a 65 of his own and no blemishes on it, one of seven bogey-free rounds on the day. Nakajima has won five times on the Japan Golf Tour, is the 2024 Hero Indian Open champion, and earned TOUR status this season by finishing inside the top ten of the 2025 DP World Tour Eligibility Ranking. Thursday's bogey-free round is his assertion of arrival. One shot behind Laird with 72 holes to play, no rookie has more breathing room.
Those who advanced
Mark Hubbard, John VanDerLaan, and Paul Peterson all posted 5-under 66s to tie for fourth, two shots behind. Hubbard, playing in his 274th TOUR start, remains a man without a victory, but a tie for seventh here last year means he has seen the shape of a winning week at this course. VanDerLaan carded the fourth bogey-free round of his career, his first since the 2023 Puerto Rico Open. Peterson, a left-hander with a best finish this season of T5 at Puerto Rico, missed the cut here a year ago and returns close enough to matter.
The field itself had thinned before a shot was struck. Adrien Saddier withdrew ahead of the round with a back injury and was replaced by Noah Goodwin, who opened at 1-over. The par-5s behaved as par-5s do: generous to those who found them in two, punitive to those who did not. By evening, a field of 123 had played 18 holes on a course that kept score carefully but did not keep it harsh.
The unlikeliest guest
The day's most improbable storyline belonged to a player who arrived by a route no one else in the field could claim. Ryan Ruffels, a YouTube content creator who won The Q at Myrtle Beach (a high-stakes digital showdown among golf-content creators competing for a sponsor exemption into this week's field) mixed six birdies with two bogeys for a 4-under 67. The six birdies were one shy of his most in a single round on TOUR, and the 67 one shy of his career-best score. He missed the cut here last year. Friday will ask him to extend a week that already reads as unlikely.
Brooks Koepka, with a 3-under 68, opened with a round in the 60s for the first time in eight individual stroke-play events this season. At a course where the scoring runs easy, that arrival is not without meaning. Nor is his proximity to the conversation: three shots behind.
What Friday requires
The cut will take shape. Laird must repeat himself, or close enough to it. Rai and Nakajima must hold the line. And every player within five shots must understand that Friday at Myrtle Beach, where the wind may shift and the rain may return, belongs to whoever can keep the bogeys away and the birdies in supply.
The preferred lies expire. The softening that favored Laird's nine birdies will deepen. And a field that arrived at this event as lighter than a major, playing opposite week to a signature tournament, will discover by tomorrow evening whether the first-round leader is the answer or merely the first question a golf course asks before the real answers arrive on Sunday.