Shane Lowry and Graeme McDowell are tied-third after carding five-under par rounds of 66 on the opening day of the RBC Heritage in South Carolina.
The Irish pair are among six players who are joint third following Thursday's round, with Mito Pereira, Corey Connors, Patrick Cantlay and Sepp Straka also on five under.
Lowry began his round on the 10th and finished his front nine with three consecutive birdies from 16-18 before further birdies on the 2nd and the 5th.
Cameron Young is top of the leaderboard going into day two at Hilton Head Island.
The American finished eight under par for the round, with Chile's Joaquin Niemann second on six under.
England's Tyrrell Hatton finished in ninth on four under.
Lowry finished joint third at the Masters last weekend and is more determined than ever to get back in the winner’s circle.
He said after the Masters: “Obviously I did very well to come back after what happened on the fourth hole, but I do feel quite disappointed because genuinely I don’t think I’ve ever built myself up for a week like this so much.
“Even when I feel like I got a little bit unfortunate at the Honda Classic (he was caught in a downpour on the 72nd hole), all I could think about was it doesn’t matter, Augusta is not far away and my game is good.
“It’s the first time I felt like I was trying to get myself up for this week and to come in here and perform to the standards that I did is nice. It’s quite rewarding.
“I am disappointed that somebody else is going to be putting on the green jacket and it’s not going to be me. It’s hard because I want this so much and I work so hard for it that I hope I get chances again.
“I just know what it would mean for me and my family and for the people of Ireland to bring the green jacket home and I didn’t do that, but hopefully I can.
“I haven’t won for a few years and I don’t enjoy not winning. I just love competing and winning tournaments.
“It gets me going so much and there’s another big, big one in a few weeks (next month’s US PGA at Southern Hills) so hopefully I can keep my form going and give it a go up there in Oklahoma.”
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