Martin Laird fired an eagle at the par-5 15th, eight birdies and three bogeys for a 7-under 64 and leads by one shot at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic.

Making his 420th start on the PGA Tour and second this season (T57/Puerto Rico Open), the 43-year-old from Scotland equaled his most birdies or better in a round on the PGA Tour (9).

64 marks his 10th best round on Tour (1,308 rounds). He made eight putts over 10 feet, his most in any round; nine putts over 10 feet in a single round is the most by any player on Tour on record, with three players having achieved this feat: Kris Blanks (2011 John Deere Classic/R1), Nathan Green (2011 Procore Championship/R2), Callum Tarren (2023 Shriners Children’s Open/R3).

Laird holds his seventh career 18-hole lead/co-lead and is 0-for-6 converting to victory. T2 at 2012 Players Championship marks his best result after holding the first-round lead/co-lead.

“Very happy,” said Laird. “First of all, I think we got a little better conditions that we were all expecting. We got lucky with the weather. It was nice to take advantage of that.

“I’ve not really been putting great for a while. I feel like I’ve been telling people I’m playing better than my scores just because of my putting recently. It was nice to finally have a day where I made some putts and started out making a nice 12-footer on the first hole and probably a 15-footer on the second hole, and that kind of got me going.

“[I] switched my putter,” he added. “A whole different style. I went to the low-torque or zero-torque putters to see if my start line could get a little better.

“You know, it’s one of these things, I come out on the road to tournaments and been putting back. Then I’ll go home and play my course and go play with friends and make putts for fun it seems like. You start thinking about what difference am I making? I’m trying a lot less at home in terms of taking less time and still reading the putts and kind of came this week with the mentality of what I’ve been doing has not been working.

“One kind of quick read for a lot of the putts. If it’s one I think I see right away, don’t try and find something else and just go. I did that in the first hole. I had a quick look. Thought this is just going a little bit left and literally said to myself, don’t go look anywhere else, just go now. I went up and hit it, and it went right in the middle, and that is what kind of set me on the way.

“Obviously very happy. I think they said out there 151 feet of putts. I had one that was very lucky. About a 40-footer one hole that had a little bit too much speed and hit the middle hole and went in. I’m going to take that because there’s plenty that I’ve been putting that think they’re going in and haven’t been.”

A four-time winner on the PGA Tour (2009 Shriners Children’s Open, 2011 Arnold Palmer Invitational, 2013 Valero Texas Open, 2020 Shriners Children’s Open), Laird made two cuts in six Korn Ferry Tour starts this season (T66/The Panama Championship, T53 Astara Golf Championship).

England’s Aaron Rai made nine birdies and three bogeys en route to a 6-under 64 and share of second place, tying his most birdies in a single round on Tour (twice previously: most recent: 2023 RBC Canadian Open/R1) and lies in T2. He is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 42 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Five-time Japan Golf Tour winner and PGA Tour rookie Keita Nakajima posted a bogey-free 65 for a share of second place, one of seven players
with a bogey-free round. He has made two cuts in six starts this season (64th/Farmers Insurance Open, 71st/WM Phoenix Open). His best finish in 23 starts on Tour was T12 at the 2022 Baycurrent Classic. He won the 2024 Hero Indian Open on the DP World Tour before finishing in the Top 10 of the 2025 DP World Tour Eligibility Ranking to earn PGA Tour status for this season.

American Brooks Koepka fired five birdies and two bogeys for a 68, opening with a round in the 60s for the first time in eight individual stroke-play events this season, and is T17 at 3-under.

Grinding back to the top 💪@BKoepka will tee it up @MyrtleBeachCl this week as he looks to move inside the top 50 of the #FedExCup Standings and qualify for next year's (and this year's!) Signature Events.

The nine-time TOUR winner currently sits at No. 63. pic.twitter.com/LVVcmXAwZF

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 6, 2026

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Truist Championship R1