Ricky Fowler eight adrift at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open

Rickie Fowler got his PGA Tour season off to a slow start with a one-over 72 in the opening round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

The world No 5, the highest ranked player in this week's field, needed a birdie on his final hole to stay within eight strokes of a four-way tie for the lead in Las Vegas.

Having picked up two birdies his opening four holes, Fowler lost ground by finding the water off the 17th tee and running up a double-bogey five.

Further blemishes at the sixth and the eight saw the American slide further down the leaderboard, before the 26-year-old closed a mixed round with a nine-foot gain at the ninth.

"It's been frustrating," Fowler told pgatour.com. "I felt like I've been swinging pretty good leading up to today.

"I putted well, felt like I drove it halfway decent and then really couldn't put many shots on the centre face of the irons and wedges, so that made it tough to pick my way round the course."

On a day of low scoring at TPC Summerlin, David Hearn, Michael Thompson and Mark Hubbard all posted seven-under 64's to set the early pace, with Tyler Aldridge alongside them with two holes remaining when play was suspended due to bad light.

Hearn birdied the last three holes with his only bogey coming at the short 17th, while American duo Thompson and Hubbard each eagled the par-five 16th on their way to strong starts.

"It feels great to get off a good start to the week and I'm looking forward to continuing to stay aggressive and try to make some more birdies," Hearn said.

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"We had a lot of wind in practice this week so today it was good to see the wind lie down a little bit.

"The course was playing pretty much as perfect as it's going to get. I think the reason there's so many good scores on that board is because the course is in such good shape."

England's Greg Owen, who has never won a PGA Tour title, lies in the group one off the pace having birdied five of his opening eight holes.

Emiliano Grillo's bid to become the first player to win the opening two events of the PGA Tour season since 2003 took an early blow, as a three-over 74 left the Argentinian ten shots off the pace.

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