Conover, NC – Kyle Bradley of North Augusta, SC carded nine birdies against zero bogeys in a stunning first-round 63 at the eGolf Tour's $235,000 HGM Hotels Classic at Rock Barn on Wednesday and will carry a one-shot advantage over the 204-player field into Thursday's second round.

The inaugural event is being contested on both the Robert Trent Jones and Tom Jackson Courses at the Rock Barn Golf Club in Conover, NC. Players will play one round on each course over the first 36 holes before the field is cut to the low 71 players and ties for the final 36 holes – which will be contested solely on the Jones course. The start of the first round was suspended for one hour due to morning fog, and later was temporarily suspended from 5:28 PM to 7:00 PM due to area lightning. After play resumed, all players on the course were able to complete round one play prior to darkness setting in at approximately 8:32 PM.

Starting on the par-4 first at the heralded Robert Trent Jones course at Rock Barn – host course for the Champions Tour's annual Ensure Classic – Bradley began his round birdie-par-birdie-birdie before hitting a bit of a mid-round lull. A seven-hole stretch featuring six pars on a day with flawless scoring slowed Bradley's torrid start and brought him to the par-4 12th at 4-under for the round. A closing stretch beginning with a birdie at 12 and punctuated with a four-hole run of birdies from Nos. 14-17 resulted in a 63 and Bradley's spot atop the leaderboard.

"I got off to quick start and then played smart golf from there on out," said Bradley, who got an early start in the day's fourth threesome. "I hit it close on 15, then made good putts on 16 and 17 to close out the round. It was just one of those days."

Bradley, who has played the tour since 2003, is one of the longest tenured players on the eGolf Tour. The only two current players on tour who have logged more consecutive years are Matt Cannon and Frank Adams III. A former College of Charleston golfer, Bradley has spent weeks between tournaments as a caddie at Augusta National Golf Club, which sits just 15 minutes from his native North Augusta (SC) on the other side of the Savannah River.

"To be honest, I didn't really see a round like this on the horizon. I struggled last week (at the tour's Grand Harbor Open) after caddying all winter, and then finally began hitting it better during the practice rounds this week," said Bradley, who estimated he probably caddies five days a week in the month following The Masters Tournament. "It's tough to get in a lot of practice when you might be looping for 27 or 36 holes a day."

Bradley's last top-10 on the eGolf Tour came in 2008, when he posted rounds of 76-66-71—213 to finish T4 at the Pete Dye Classic in Virginia. Playing in just his fourth event of 2010, he has made two of three cuts thus far, with his best finish being a T16 at the season-opening Palmetto Hall Championship. He did not play a practice round at the Jackson course (where he will play tomorrow's second round), but rather rode around and got a feel for what it requires.

"It seems as though you have to hit it straight off the tee, and if you do that, you can score with your wedges," said Bradley. "Hopefully I can keep it going."

The low rounds of day one on the Jackson course came from Taylor Hall, Jim Renner and Nick Travers, who each posted rounds of 7-under 64 to open the event on Rock Barn's original layout.

Hall, a former Georgia Tech golfer from LaGrange, GA, is playing his first full season on the eGolf Tour this year. After making the cut at the Palmetto Hall Championship, and grabbing the first-round lead at the Savannah Quarters Classic in February, Hall has missed five consecutive cuts leading into this week.

The day's most bizarre round came from Renner, a Plainville, MA native making his first start of the year on the eGolf Tour. Renner pared the first four holes on the Jackson course before recording nine birdies and an untimely double-bogey on his final 14 holes.

Renner was cruising along at 6-under on his round, having birdied six of his prior seven holes, before suffering a double-bogey at the drive-able par-4 12th. Fortunately, he would recover with birdies on 14, 17 and 18 to close his round.

Adam Mitchell, a member of the 2009 United States Walker Cup team, posted Wednesday's second-lowest round on the Jones course when he carded a 7-under 65 in the afternoon wave.

Second-round play in the HGM Hotels Classic will begin at 7:30 AM, with players competing in threesomes off of No. 1 tee on both the Jones and Jackson courses. The tournament is open to the public and free of charge.