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Two share first day honours

David Kirkpatrick and Paul Claxton each fired rounds of seven-under 65 on Thursday to lead the Buy.com Tour Siouxland Open by one shot.

Tjaart van der Walt and Chris Couch share third at minus-six.

Kirkpatrick matched Claxton at the top of the leaderboard at his 16th hole of the day, the par-five seventh. His second shot missed the green but he chipped over a slope and watched as his ball fell into the cup for eagle.

"I guess things were going my way too," said Kirkpatrick, who missed only one fairway on Thursday. "You have to hit a lot of good shots to shoot 65."

Claxton started on fire Thursday with three birdies to open his round, all from inside 10 feet. He parred the par-three fourth, then played an eight-iron to 10 feet to set up birdie at No. 5.

At the sixth, Claxton roped a seven-iron 12 feet from the hole for another birdie putt, then two-putted from 20 feet at seven for his third birdie in a row.

"I hit it close and it got me off to a good start," said Claxton, who did not miss a fairway in round one. "Those are the scoring holes because it gets a little tougher on the back."

He made one more two-putt birdie at the par-five 12th for his 65.

"My speed was a little off today on the putts," he said. "The greens on the back are softer and slower than the ones on the front. It's a game of adjustments, and I didn't adjust very well on the back. Still, I didn't have any bogeys today, and that's always good."

Kirkpatrick opened on the back nine at Dakota Dunes Country Club and quickly picked up birdies on his first three holes. He missed a three-foot par save at 15 and followed with a three-putt bogey from 15 feet at 17.

He drained a 20-foot birdie putt at his ninth and made it back-to-back with a four-footer on 10. He added a pair of short birdie putts before his chip-in eagle on seven.

"I hit a lot of shots close, and it was quite an easy day for me," Kirkpatrick said. "I wasn't making a lot of 5- and 7-footers for par."

Ben Crane, Darron Stiles, Rob McKelvey, Rick Woodson, Mark Johnson, Pat Bates and Arjun Atwal share fifth place at five-under 67.

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