Senior Tour professional Jerry Bruner was the only player to break 70 on a tough opening day at the Bermuda Open.

Bruner shot a two-under par 69 at Port Royal Golf Course to take an early one-shot lead over Brennan Webb (70), and is three shots ahead of Chris Parra (72). Defending champion Brian McCann, meanwhile, carded an opening round 74 to lie fourth.

On a day of high scores, Daniel Augustus’ first round as a professional, a 15-over par 86, was nearer the top end, but with experienced pros such as Graham Bannister, Jon Denny, and Paul Adams all shooting in the 80s there was plenty of reason not be too disheartened.

And the young Bermudian’s round was still seven shots better than playing partner William Pugliese who had a miserable day, carding five double-bogeys, and two triple-bogeys in a confidence-sapping 93.

At least Pugliese will get a chance to rectify his mistakes, Danny King’s tournament is over after just one round.

King signed for a 74, when he shot a 75, and was disqualified. It completed a miserable week for the Canadian, who was already furious after being left out of Wednesday’s Pro-Am, and all that after being stuck on the flight from Toronto that was turned around on Monday.

Augustus’ main problem yesterday was one which he will no doubt encounter on numerous occasions throughout his new career, he just couldn’t catch a break on the greens.

It started with his second shot at the first hole, where he pitched eight feet on, only to see the ball spin back and roll into the water, continued when his birdie putt at two slipped just past the left edge after dying at the last moment, progressed throughout the round, and was summed up when another birdie chance at 17 from four feet again died at the very end, and slipped past the hole.

Despite all his travails on the front nine, Augustus still reached the turn at six-over, but a quadruple-bogey eight at 11, where he hit his third shot from a greenside bunker out of bounds, was a blow he never really recovered from.

Even so, the 22-year-old refused to be downbeat about his first professional round, and said there were still plenty of positives to take from the experience.

“I hit some good shots,” said Augustus, “and I felt great standing on the first tee, I hit a good shot for my first professional shot. There are some positives there, of course it’s overloaded with the negatives of what happened out there, but that’s golf.

“It’s my first tournament round, and my highest round since I was a junior golfer, but you’ve got to take everything in your stride. Like I said, I hit some real good shots, but I couldn’t catch a break to save my life, I hit some solid putts and the ball just didn’t do what it was supposed to do.

“But I got the first round monkey off my back. It’s nice to have that out of the way.”

While Augustus was struggling on the greens, Bruner had one of those days when his putter worked like a charm. The American drained a 30-footer at two for his first birdie, rattled in another from 25-feet for a birdie on 15, and in all had just 26 putts in his round of 69.

“I made quite a few putts today, I was surprised because I sometimes don’t putt Bermuda that well,” said Bruner. “I missed a (birdie) putt on the first hole, a 10 or 12 footer, I planned it outside of the hole, and I told myself then ‘you get that close to the hole again you’ve got to keep it close to the hole because it’s not going to move that much.”

At two-under Bruner is in a strong position for the tournament, and with weather conditions set to worsen over the weekend, he thinks even-par might be enough to win the Open.

“I think even-par might be good enough (to win),” he said, “unless they move the tees up to where you can keep the ball around par.”

At five shots back, McCann is still in with a chance of successfully defending his title, and after completing his round in high winds and driving rain, the Canadian was pretty pleased with his day’s work.

“I bogeyed 12 and 13 to go to two-over, and then birdied 15 to get it to one, and I would have liked to have a chance to par 16, and then birdie 17, maybe shoot even par, but finishing in that weather was just too much,” he said.

“I’m down by five, to a great round of golf, but anything can happen and I didn’t shoot myself out of it.”

Not in the hunt, but still making an impression, was female professional Perry Swenson. The LPGA Futures Tour player shot a 16-over 87 in a round that also finished in the driving rain.

“At one point the rain was going sideways,” she said. “But I started out fine, I was two-over after six or seven holes, and then I wasn’t hitting many greens, and I was making some bogeys and towards the end of my round it was more mental.

“I was really mentally tired after 13 or 14 holes because normally I have the chance to make some birdies, but here there are only a couple of chances, so at that point it was a case of trying to salvage whatever I could out of my round.

“I think I tried a little bit too hard, wanting to play good, but it’s frustrating because I don’t remember the last time I shot this high. But I am playing a much longer golf course under much tougher conditions, so I have to be a little bit more lenient on myself, and not get too upset about it.”