CROMWELL, Conn. – Eric Cole was early to the top of the leaderboard in Round 1 of the Travelers Championship on Thursday.

He took advantage of the soft greens on a comfortable morning at TPC River Highlands and avoided mistakes as he followed a 2-under front nine with a 5-under 35 on the back. It was a 63-foot, nine-inch chip shot from just off the 13th green that found the hole for eagle and ultimately served as the difference between Cole and the cluster of stars behind him.

“It was a good way to start the tournament, for sure,” said Cole, who finished the round at 7-under-par 63 for sole position in the lead. “We had really good conditions to start the day, limited wind, greens were pretty soft, so there were birdies to be made out there. I felt like I played solid and kept giving myself chances and a few of ’em went in, so that was nice.”

But some of the best in the world, No. 1 Scottie Scheffler included, hadn’t tee’d off yet.

For the next four hours, the group chasing Cole was deep. But he never got caught.

Twelve players, Scheffler included, will come into Friday’s second round within two strokes of the lead. Six are tied at 6-under-par 64, and another six find themselves two strokes back at 5-under 65.

“I’ve now played a decent amount on Tour and winning is something I want to do. But, yeah, I just am trying to get myself in that spot where have I more opportunities and then hopefully just the more I do that, the more likely it is that I’ll win,” said Cole, who had to withdraw from last year’s event for medical reasons before the final round.

It will take some good golf to stay in contention this week.

There were eight eagles recorded on Thursday, up from just three in last year’s first round, and 295 birdies, a significant increase from last year’s 259.

“When the scoring is lower it can be harder and harder to play catch up. I feel like when you play a golf course where even par’s going to be the winning score at the end of the week, there’s always those days where somebody figures it out. When you look at the low rounds from last week’s U.S. Open, there’s still a few of ’em, or at least one guy seems to figure it out each day, so you feel like you can catch up a little bit easier,” said Scheffler, who shot 4-under-par 31 on the front nine but failed to jump into the lead.

He finished in the group at 6-under, which includes world No. 4 Matt Fitzpatrick and Nico Echavarria, Kristoffer Reitan, Ben Griffin and Bud Cauley.

“Sometimes here, you get so far behind you can only shoot so low on some of these golf courses, so it’s important to keep pace,” Scheffler said.

Justin Rose, who made seven birdies but two bogeys to finish at 5-under 65, is tied for eighth with U.S. President’s Cup captain Brandt Snedeker, Patrick Cantlay, Aaron Rai, Viktor Hovland and Corey Connors. Defending champion Keegan Bradley was in a group at 3-under 67.

Only 11 players in the 72-man field finished Thursday’s round over par. Jordan Spieth, who won the tournament in 2017, came in at 1-over-par 71, with Cameron Young just behind at 2-over 72.

Thursday’s round featured an average score of 67.961, which is the lowest-ever in the first round at the Travelers.

“You’ve got to do everything well around here. You can certainly miss it in some spots and be okay, it’s one of those where if you’re scoring it well you can kind of overcome some maybe some bad shots here and there,” Hovland said. “But then there’s also a handful of places where you’re standing over the ball and you know that you have to pull off a great shot.”

The Travelers is the final PGA Tour Signature Event of the season. It has a $20 million purse with $3.6 million and 700 FedExCup points to the winner. Cole entered the tournament at No. 39 in the FedExCup standings, more than 2,300 points behind Scheffler.

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