George McNeill and Australia’s Scott Hend are tied for the lead at the Principal Charity Classic following the first round Friday in Des Moines, Iowa.

McNeill and Hend each shot 7-under-par 65 at Wakonda Club and will take a one-shot lead over four players into the weekend. Vaughn Taylor, Tag Ridings, Australian John Senden and defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain sit at 6-under 66.

McNeill turned 50 last fall and is playing his first season on the PGA Tour Champions. He’s made the cut in all eight starts and has two runner-up finishes, including at last week’s team event, the American Family Insurance Championship, where he played with Kenny Perry.

“Honestly, I’m just trying to play like I have been. I feel like I played fairly well all year,” said McNeill, who made an eagle at the par-5 13th to go with six birdies and one bogey.
“… But again, all these courses are brand new to me so there’s a lot of stuff that I’m looking at it and reading putts and greens. These guys who have been here year after year after year, it helps. So I’m just trying to play like I have been, get out of my own way.”

Hend racked up nine birdies Friday, including four over the final six holes. He broke through for his first PGA Tour Champions win last month at the Trophy Hassan II in Morocco.

Hend said it takes “more than a couple days” to get used to an unfamiliar course, though that didn’t stop him from going low in his first visit to Wakonda.

“I didn’t play the last four holes, so I didn’t know what the last four holes were like,” Hend said. “So got on the 18th tee, I said to my caddie, ‘Where’s the green?’ He’s like, ‘I think it’s over there.’ He walked up trying to get the proper line. I’m just trying to learn the golf course and hopefully by Sunday afternoon I’ll know what to do.”

Tied for seventh at 5-under 67 are Doug Barron, Matt Gogel, Brett Quigley, Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal, Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke and Aussies Richard Green and David Brandson.

–Field Level Media