Australians Adam Crawford and Oliver Goss took advantage of early tee times to shoot 8-under 64’s Thursday morning and grab a share of the first-day lead at the inaugural Cartagena de Indias at Karibana Championship presented by PreBuild.

 The morning half of the draw saw benign conditions early at TPC Cartagena at Karibana and blasted drivers downwind and attacked pins before the northeast winds picked up and held steady at 25-35 mph for the afternoon group.

Joel Dahmen, Miguel Carballo, Jhared Hack and Rob Oppenheim share third place with 6-under 66’s. Six more players are tied at 67.

"The morning was pretty calm for the first nine," said Crawford, who splits time between Brisbane and Dallas. "We play in the wind pretty much every day. It might not be as strong as this but it’s windy every day. You just get used to playing in it."

Crawford three-putted his first hole for bogey but posted a clean scorecard the rest of the way, tossing in a pair of eagles on the 9th and 18th holes, two of five par-5s that are featured on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course.

Thursday’s opener was a big turnaround for the 39-year Crawford, who admitted he was frustrated during early week practice rounds.

"The weather hasn’t been great in Dallas and I went to Arizona for a couple days to try and get some practice in," he said. "It didn’t go well out there and the first couple of days here."

Crawford went to work out his frustrations on the practice range Wednesday.

"I kind of found something on the range and today went really well," he said, but declined to elaborate. "I can’t tell you what it is. If I say it then it disappears. No, I’m not superstitious at all (laughter), but my left shoe always goes on first."

Goss, 20, grew up in Perth, Australia, one of the 10 windiest cities on the planet.

"Playing well early in the morning is going to be important," said Goss. "I haven’t played in wind like this in a long time. It’s something we get used to in Australia. It’s tougher for the players who haven’t played in the wind before."

Goss flexed his muscles on several holes Thursday, especially those with the wind at his back.

"On the downwind holes I like to be quite aggressive and try to hit it a little harder," he said. "I want to get it down there as far as I can. Having a 9-iron to a par-5 is quite advantageous."

That’s exactly what Goss hit for his second shot on the 567-yard, 8th hole. He belted driver and let the wind and the terrain take it as far as possible. "The wind was blowing and I had 184 to the hole."

Goss stuffed it to within four feet and made the eagle putt to jump from six to eight-under and join Crawford at the top.

Two players did not complete the opening round due to darkness and will resume their round at 7:30 a.m. Friday. The second round will begin as scheduled at 6:40 a.m local time.

Related Links

Video / Crawford and Goss tied on Web.com
Scores / Web.com Tour Full Leaderboard