Round 1: Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial

By Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM

FORT WORTH, Texas — Brendon de Jonge arrived at Colonial this week with some solid performances under his belt — seven top-25 finishes this year that put him a respectable 38th in FedExCup points.

But he also was coming off his most disappointing result of the season, a missed cut at THE PLAYERS Championship in which he shot 81-73.

De Jonge

He bounced back into form rather quickly in Thursday’s first round of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.

De Jonge, starting in the first group off the 10th tee, posted a 6-under 64, his lowest round on TOUR in nearly a year, to put himself near the top of the leaderboard.

"I struggled last week mightily," said the native of Zimbabwe. "But I feel a lot more comfortable on this golf course than I did last week. So I had that going for me.

"But no, I would be lying if I said I saw it coming."

Going out in the first group was a key for de Jonge, the 2008 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year. Not only did he have fresh greens for his first nine, but there was nobody in front of his threesome.

"I do like to play quickly, and we had a quick group," he said of partners George McNeill and Greg Chalmers. "All of three of us enjoyed playing quickly. It was nice for us."

De Jonge said Colonial suits his eye more than last week’s tournament at TPC Sawgrass.

"I feel comfortable picking a line off the tee here," he said. "Obviously you need to drive it in these fairways — especially, you know, you can get a lot of flyers out of this rough. That’s the main thing, just getting comfortable picking lines off the tee."

At some point, though, de Jonge knows he’ll need to come to grips with TPC Sawgrass, since it hosts the PGA TOUR’s flagship event.

"I better figure that out," he laughed, "because it is a $9-1/2 million purse."