New England Open champion Jason Thresher of West Suffield, Connecticut, fired a 6-under-par 64 on Tuesday to grab the first-round lead in the Charlie’s Maine Open golf tournament at Augusta Country Club in Manchester.
The 30-year-old Thresher, who played seven events this season on the PGA Latinoamerica Tour, holds a one-shot advantage over defending champion and two-time Maine Open winner Matt Campbell of Clifton Park, New York, and Jason Millard of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Geoff Sisk of Marshfield, Massachusetts, and Brendon Doyle of Louisville, Kentucky, are tied for fourth, two strokes back, at 66.
Leading the way among Maine golfers in the opening round were Gavin Dugas of Pittsfield, and amateurs Joe Alvarez of Biddeford, Scott Sirois of Falmouth and Peter Wright of Saco, who were among eight players tied for 12th place at 1-under 69.
Thresher covered the Augusta Country Club layout with only a single bogey. He opened with a birdie on the first hole and, after three straight pars, birdied Nos. 5 and 6. He finished out the front nine with back-to-back pars after bogeying the seventh hole.
After making the turn, Thresher birdied the 11th, 14th, 16th and 18th holes to register his round of 6 under.
Thresher, a 6-foot-2, 175-pounder, is a 2010 graduate of Bryant University in Rhode Island, where he earned a degree in accounting. His top PGA Latinoamerica finish of the season game when he tied for 13th in May at the Puerto Plata Open in the Dominican Republic.
In June, he claimed the title at the New England Open in Vermont with a three-stroke victory, and Thresher is a three-time winner of the Massachusetts Open (2016, 2017, 2018).