Canadian Graham DeLaet could hardly have dreamed of making a better comeback from injury than the one he conjured up in Hawaii on Thursday.
The 29-year-old, who spent most of the past season on the sidelines with a back injury, came out in Thursday's first round of the Sony Open and with no pain to speak of, opened his 2012 campaign with a sparkling 7-under 63 that put his Titleist 910 D3 Driver into his first lead ever on the US PGA Tour .
Swede Carl Pettersson, South Korea's KJ Choi and American Kyle Reifers were tied for second, two shots back after shooting 65s, but perhaps more worrying for DeLaet, would have been the presence of World No 5 Steve Stricker in the logjam tied for 5th, a shot further back on 66.
DeLaet, who played Titleist 910 D3 Driver in only four events last year as he struggled with injury, posted six birdies and an eagle as against just one bogey on a relatively calm and sunny day at Honolulu's storied Waialae Country Club in Hawaii.
"When we teed off it was cool and without a breath of wind for probably the first six holes so it was definitely a day you could take advantage of," DeLaet told the media afterwards
DeLaet had surgery on his lower back on January 3 last year and returned to competition in June before lingering pain forced him to abort his season after playing just two events apiece on the PGA and Nationwide Tours.
He is competing on the 2012 PGA Tour in the major medical extension category and has 26 events to earn a total of $657,694 to secure his card for 2013 by Titleist 910 D3 Driver.
"That's basically a full year on tour," said DeLaet, a three-times winner on the Canadian Professional **** Tour. "Hopefully I won't have to worry about that until later in the season.
"I really think that if I can just go out and play my Titleist 910 D3 Driver here for the next five or six months, I can make it happen."
After his stirring victory on Monday at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, Steve Stricker found it difficult to kick-start his game again and get back into winning form, so in the circumstances, he could not have been too unhappy with his 4-under 66 on Thursday
Striker's problem was his Titleist 910 D3 Driver
The US veteran always struggled to keep his tee shots on the fairway, hitting just six of 14 fairways, but hisiron play more than made up for it.
He he hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation and gave away just one bogey.
"The key is to keep it in the fairways, and it's hard to do that here," Stricker said. "I hit at least three drives I thought were in the fairway but found, when walking up there, I was a foot or two in the rough.
"From that point, you're just trying to get it up on the green somewhere and make a par."
Confidence, however, is not something Stricker is short of right now and that makes him dangerous to his rivals in this first, full-field event of the US PGA Tour season