Richy Werenski takes lead at Minnesota with last-gasp birdie

American Richy Werenski calmly sank a short birdie on the par-five 18th to take an opening round lead at the 3M Open in Minnesota.

The 28-year-old made the most of some friendly greens as he shot an eight-under 63 at TPC Twin Cities on Thursday.

A consistent performance throughout the day puts him one shot in front of fellow American Michael Thompson, who was keeping pace with Werenski until the latter’s final birdie.

Elsewhere, Ireland’s Seamus Power and England’s Tom Lewis led the way for the British contingent thanks to their shared score of three-under 68.

They are both currently tied for 27th, well ahead of the next-closest Briton Tommy Fleetwood.

In what was his first tournament since the resumption of the PGA Tour, Fleetwood was left to rue a double bogey on the 18th which saw him finish with an even 71.

Heading into the tournament, the 12th-ranked Fleetwood said his focus was just on playing well, without having a particular score in mind.

He told a pre-tournament press conference: “I’m definitely not going to use time off as any kind of excuse if I don’t play well because I feel like I’ve had a lot of good practice and playing time. So hopefully I can just pick it up and come out here and put in a strong performance.

“We’ll see. And if not, then I’m definitely going to learn from this week moving into the weeks ahead where there are some pretty big weeks coming up.”