Ben Martin grabs early lead at Barracuda Championship

Ben Martin pocketed nine birdies Thursday to grab a two-point advantage at the Barracuda Championship at Tahoe Mountain Club in Truckee, California.

The modified Stableford scoring system employed at the event gives golfers points for positive holes – two points for a birdie, five points for an eagle – as opposed to the traditional stroke-play method where low scores are preferable.

Martin's nine birdies at the club's Old Greenwood course put him at plus-18, with two bogeys on Nos. 6 and 7, subtracting two points to leave him at plus-16.

"Yeah, +16 is usually a tough start. This week it's good," Martin quipped. "Just one of those days where you think about the type of round you want to play and I was putting it together."

Starting his day on the back nine, Martin earned birdied on Nos. 11, 13, 15 and 16, then got on a streak, sinking birdies at Nos. 2-4. After his bogeys, he rallied to score two more birdies on the eighth and ninth to close out his day.

"Yeah, sometimes we can get out here and we can stay and grind and work hard. Those are good things," Martin said. "But I found a lot of times when I'm able to kind of forget about golf when I leave the course, that's a good sign."

The picturesque course near Lake Tahoe can provide plenty of distractions, but dozens of golfers had strong days, leaving a long list of contenders after one day of competition.

Tied for second at plus-14 are Nick Watney and David Lipsky. Watney had eight birdies, while Lipsky had six and an eagle while suffering a double bogey on No 2 caused by, of all things, a sprinkler.

"It landed pin high right sort of where I was trying to hit it but just off the green by a foot and hit the sprinkler head and bounced over the camera guys in the trees," Lipsky said. "It's one of those things. It happens. I can't dwell on that. Did a lot of good today."

Six golfers are tied for fourth at plus-13: Cameron Champ, Joel Dahmen, Danny Walker, the Philippines' Rico Hoey and Englishmen Dale Whitnell and Todd Clements.

After that, a group of four are clustered in 10th at plus-12. Japan's Yuto Katsuragawa grabbed eight birdies to a forge a tie with Andrew Putnam, Jackson Suber and Vince Whaley.

Previous champs Nick Dunlap (minus-6) and Chez Reavie (plus-2) trail well behind the leaders.