Weather: Mostly sunny and warm with highs in the low-80s and winds from the WSW at 5-10 mph.
Current Leaderboard: T1 -- Mark Calcavecchia, Michael Allen & David Peoples/66/-6); 4 -- Mark O'Meara/67/-5); T5 -- Six players at 4-under-par 68.
Mark Calcavecchia, David Peoples and Michael Allen share the first-round lead after the trio opened with a 6-under-par 66 on Friday at the Songdo IBD Championship at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea.
Calcavecchia continued the strong play he demonstrated late last month when he prevailed in a one-hole playoff with Russ Cochran at the Boeing Classic near Seattle. It was Calcavecchia's first win on the Champions Tour. Should he go on to win this tournament, he'd become the first player to win successive events on the Champions Tour since John Cook won the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in 2010 and the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai to kick off the 2011 campaign.
Scott Hoch returned to the Champions Tour on Friday, making his first start since June. Hoch fired a 2-under-par 70 and is currently T15. Hoch was the lone player in the field to post a bogey-free round. Hoch has been troubled by a balky left wrist the last few years.
Australian Peter Senior opened with a 4-under-par 68 and is the lone non-American in the top 10.
The field included players from 11 countries. In addition to the United States, competitors hailed from South Korea, Taiwan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Thailand, Canada, Scotland, Japan, Australia and Germany.
The first-round scoring average was 71.633 (-.367), a huge drop from last year's opening-round average of 74.429 (+2.429) which was the highest opening-round scoring average in an event since 2008 when the field averaged 74.688 at The Cap Cana Championship.
Defending champion Russ Cochran opened with a 3-under-par 69 and is T15.
The most difficult hole on Friday was No. 10 with an average score of 4.283, while No. 3 was the easiest at 4.500 (-.500). There were three eagles and 26 birdies.
Thailand' s Boonchu Ruangkit and Keith Fergus each posted a pair of eagles on Friday.