CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- The annual birdie barrage at Black Creek Club got off to a blazing start during Thursday’s opening round of the Nationwide Tour’s $475,000 Chattanooga Classic. Garrett Willis and Brandt Snedeker, both of whom played collegiate golf in the state, scorched the par-72 layout with 10-under-par 62s to lead a sea of sub-par scores. Craig Bowden and Kevin Gessino-Kraft posted 9-under 63s and share third place, while Alabama residents Dicky Pride and Spike McRoy are next at 64.

With temperatures in the rain-parched region reaching the upper 90s, scoring conditions for the normally benign course were lower than usual. The first-round scoring average was a blistering 69.538. Birdies and eagles were the order of the day as 14 players finished at 7 under or better, 49 at 5 under or better, 85 shot sub-70 scores and 128 of the 156 players were at par or better.

“I was thinking of birdieing them all,” said East Tennessee State grad Willis after making 10 birdies on his final 14 holes. “I said before the week start that it would take 30-under and I don’t even know if that number is safe. There are a lot of birdie holes out there, the golf course is in phenomenal shape and I don’t think we’ve putted on greens this pure all year. When you’ve got a lot of wedges in your hands, reachable par 5s and pure greens, these guys are going to take it low.”

Willis’ round of 62 was four lower than his previous best this year and was a career-best on the Nationwide Tour. Willis, whose best finish thus far in 2006 is a tie for 33rd at the season-opening Movistar Panama Championship, hit 16 greens and canned a half-dozen birdie putts in the 12 to 22-foot range along with hole-out from a greenside bunker for another birdie.

“To be honest, I wasn’t trying to make putts out there. I was trying to stroke them and they were finding the hole,” said Willis, who got some putting help from fellow pro Bob Wolcott early in the week. “I haven’t really been putting well this year. Bob noticed that my head was moving around a bit so I tried to keep my head still. It seems I made a lot more putts today than I’m used to making.”

Snedeker, a former first team All-American at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, also posted a career-best score that included 17 greens in regulation and a pair of eagles.

“Over the first 10 tournaments this year I’ve been missing cuts and not playing good on the weekend. You really start to question what you’re doing,” said Snedeker, who has made nine of 13 cuts this year but hasn’t been better than tied for 27th (twice). “I’ve been playing stupid, terrible golf to be quite honest. It just amazes sometimes with the stuff I do out here. It’s been coming for a while. I’ve worked so hard for the last six months on getting everything where it needs to be.”

Snedeker missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole that would have given him the outright lead. “I’m just disappointed I hit such a bad putt on that hole,” he said. “It’s not too often you get a chance to shoot that low a number. When you do, you want to take advantage of it and I hit the worst putt of the day. I really can’t complain though, I played pretty solid all day.”

First-round News and Notes: First-round play was suspended from 5:30 to 6:10 pm due to threatening conditions (lightning) in the area…Andrew Buckle matched the tournament record with a 7-under-par 29 on the back nine…Several players posted nine-hole scores of 6-under-par 30: Garrett Willis, Kevin Gessino-Kraft and Michael Long did it on the front nine, while Brandt Snedeker, Steve Wheatcroft and Nick Malinowski did it on the back nine…Wheatcroft posted the best eagle-birdie streak of the season when he was 6-under par (birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie) on holes Nos. 14-18…Brad Adamonis, Justin Bolli and Andrew Pratt all made five consecutive birdies on holes Nos. 2-6…Snedeker, James Oh, Spike McRoy and Kyle Reifers each had two eagles.