J.T. Poston carded a 10-under 62 featuring an eagle at the par-5 7 and nine birdies as well as a bogey at the par-4 1st at the Nicklaus Tournament Course to take a one-shot lead at The American Express, one stroke shy of his career-low round of 61.

“It was just one of those days where everything was sort of clicking,” said Poston. “I really hit my irons great, drove it good, gave myself plenty of chances, and, yeah, believe it or not missed a few putts inside of 10 feet the first nine holes. Just one of those days tee to green it was really good and iron play was really sharp.

“I don’t want to say I didn’t make anything on front, but I just knew I was hitting my irons good, and I knew that I was going to have plenty of chances coming in. Definitely had some bonus ones there, and stole a few, making a long eagle putt on 7 that you’re not really expecting to make. Then 8 hitting it as close as I did is kind of a bonus, making 2 there. So I just told myself after the bogey I was going to just keep plodding along and try and give myself as many looks as I could.”

Fellow American Justin Lower closed with a bogey-free 63 at La Quinta Country Club, equaling his low round on the PGA Tour and became the first player to record back-to-back eagles in the 2025 season, at the par-5s 5th and 6th. Five players achieved the feat in the 2024 season.

“There’s a couple holes you have to be careful of, for sure. Pretty benign conditions, very little wind, and probably the softest of the three courses green-wise, so you can be pretty aggressive into the greens. You just had to be a little wary about how far the ball was going in the morning. Eventually it warned up, so started going normal distance eventually,” said Lower.

“We had back-to-back par-5s,” he said of his eagles, “hit two really good tee shots, had basically the same yardage on each hole. No. 5 I hit it to about three feet, which was perfect 5-iron.

“Then hit a perfect 5-iron on the next hole as well and hit it to about 20 feet, luckily made the putt.”

Germany’s Matti Schmid closed with a bogey-free 64 at the Nicklaus Tournament Course to take a share of third place at 8-under alongside Australia’s Jason Day, who matched his tournament low-round score at La Quinta.

Also tied in third place are Americans Chris Kirk and J.J. Spaun at La Quinta who both stayed bogey-free while Kirk also made two eagles at the par-5s 11th and 5th.

Defending champion Nick Dunlap who made history last year becoming the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour in 33 years, sits at T28 after recording a 67 at La Quinta Country Club.

Related: PGA Tour releases statement regarding the 2025 Genesis Invitational

The event will play at an alternate location due to the Los Angeles fires