Greensboro, NC – Former amateur star Jack Fields of Pinehurst, NC, who admittedly took a few months to get acclimated to the professional game in early 2012, continued his torrid 2013 pace, posting a stellar 9-under 63 in the opening round of the eGolf Tour’s Forest Oaks Classic on Wednesday – good for a three-shot lead heading into Thursday’s second round of the 54-hole event.

The Forest Oaks Classic is the seventh of 24 scheduled events on the 2013 eGolf Tour schedule, and is being contested this week at Forest Oaks Country Club in Greensboro, NC – 30-year host of the PGA TOUR’s annual Wyndham Championship.

Fields, playing in the day’s first threesome off of No. 10, began in steady-yet-unspectacular fashion with a birdie and a bogey through six holes to sit tight at even par through one-third of his round.

“I started out okay and gave myself some good looks at birdie on the first few holes,” said Fields, 23. “Then I chipped in for birdie on 12 and that got me going a little bit.”

The birdie at the par-4 12th was given away just a few minutes thereafter when Fields bogeyed the 357-yard par-4 15th – the shortest par-4 on the golf course.

“Every time I play this golf course I play that hole terribly,” said Fields, who called the dogleg-right par-4 a simple 3-iron and sand wedge hole. “I always hit my second shot long, and I always tell myself, ‘I’m not going to hit it long again.’ And I do.”

The peculiar bogey gave way to birdies on 16 and 17 that moved Fields to 2-under par for the day – a figure that jumped to 4-under when Fields laced a 3-iron from 254 yards on the par-5 18th to a mere 5 feet, converting the putt for an eagle.

“That was a nice one to have making the turn.”

Fields’ torrid pace continued on the front nine of the Davis Love III-redesign, as a birdie at the par-4 first moved him to 5-under for the day.

A short birdie miss at the par-4 second led to a birdie at the par-3 third, and when Fields failed to birdie the reachable par-5 fourth, he began to scratch his head.

“I didn’t birdie the par-5 and began to get confused,” said Fields, who birdied just two of four par-5s en route to his 63. “I couldn’t birdie the easy holes but was playing the tough ones well.”

The confusion didn’t last long, as the long-hitting Fields added birdies on Nos. 5 and 6 to reach 8-under par, eventually ending his day with a birdie at the arduous par-4 18th to wrap up his splendid 9-under par effort.

“All in all, I hit it really well,” said Fields. “I was able to roll in a few putts, which has always been my nemesis on this golf course.”

The 9-under 63 tied Fields’ career-low (to par) on the eGolf Tour, dating back to a second-round 62 in the 2012 Columbia Open – an event he went on to win for his first professional title.

The 63 also harkened back to his days as the star player on the University of North Carolina golf team, as Fields set the program’s all-time low 18-hole score when he posted an identical 9-under mark at Forest Oaks in the 2009 Bridgestone Golf Collegiate.

“This course reminds me of playing back in Pinehurst. You have room to hit it off the tee, but you have to be on point with your irons, and you have to putt well,” he said. “I’ve always been comfortable, ball-striking wise, and I certainly played well during that round in college. I was disappointed not to have won, to be honest.”

Fields lost that tournament to good friend and fellow eGolf Tour member Amory Davis, but it was one of only a few big titles he failed to grab during his amateur days.

The former Tar Heel star entered the professional ranks late in 2011 when he ended a successful run as the top amateur golfer in the Carolinas, and entered PGA TOUR Q-School.

Prior to declaring himself a professional, Fields’ resume declared him as the man to beat at countless top amateur events, picking up wins at the 2011 North & South Amateur, the 2011 Carolinas Open, the 2009 Carolinas Amateur and the 2008 North Carolina Amateur.

When Fields missed out on Q-School in 2011, he turned to the eGolf Tour in 2012, overcoming a sluggish start (four missed cuts in his first seven starts) to post the win at Columbia, as well as a T2 finish at the Cabarrus Classic in September. At year’s end, he had amassed over $40,000 in earnings to sit at No. 15 on the tour’s money list.

But he still felt as though better play was on the horizon.

“Last year I played well at times, but I never really played consistently. I played my best golf in Monday qualifiers, but I couldn’t put three or four good rounds together in tournaments,” said Fields, who Monday qualified for two Web.com Tour events. “This year, my goal was to get more consistent and to try and be better, be more committed to each shot.”

Thus far, Fields’ plan seems to be paying dividends. Through six events, he has made six cuts – a far cry from 2012, when he made just nine cuts in 19 starts.

In the six tournaments played, he has notched a workmanlike four top-15 finishes, including runner-up efforts at both the Oldfield Open and the Irish Creek Classic.

“I think I’ve realized I can compete at this level, if I can stay level-headed,” said Fields, admittedly his own worst enemy on the course at times. “I just need to play my game, and hopefully things will work out.”

MacKenzie Hughes of Ontario, Canada and T.J. Howe of Osceola, PA are tied for second, three shots back of Fields after matching rounds of 6-under 66 on day one.

Hughes, an eGolf Tour rookie in 2013, is just two weeks removed from a career-best T3 finish at the Founders Club Classic at St. James Plantation.

On Wednesday, the 22-year-old got off to a rapid pace, posting eagles on Nos. 4 and 11 to reach 6-under par with seven holes to go in his opening round. His red-figure barrage, however, would cool down the stretch, as pars on Nos. 12 through 18 left him still at 6-under, and with a 66 for the day.

The Dundas, Ontario native won the prestigious Canadian Amateur in 2011 and 2012, representing his native country in the Eisenhower Trophy in 2012 as well. Hughes stared in college at Kent State University, winning the 2011 Mid-American Conference Championship, as well as two other individual titles.

Like Hughes, Howe also came out swinging during round one, with birdies on Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 9 to turn at 4-under 32. At the par-5 11th, Howe posted an eagle to reach 6-under par for the day, well within striking distance of the pace being set by Fields.

A bogey at the par-3 13th took him back to 5-under par, but the former Penn State golfer rebounded with a birdie at the lengthy par-3 17th to move back to 6-under, where he eventually finished after paring the 18th.

Howe is in his second full season on the eGolf Tour, and has enjoyed a solid opening stretch, making the cut in four out of six starts, with matching T11 finishes at the Palmetto Hall Championship and the Irish Creek Classic serving as his best results.

A host of players sit tied for fourth after rounds of 5-under 67, including 2013 eGolf Tour winners Brent Witcher of Atlanta, GA, Chris Thompson of Lawrence, KS and Cam Burke of Ontario, Canada.

Burke, also a two-time Canadian Amateur champion (2008-2009), won the aforementioned Founders Club Classic, enduring brutal final-round conditions and five bogeys over his last six holes for a final-round 76 and his first career eGolf Tour title.

Second-round play in the Forest Oaks Classic will begin at 8:00 AM on Thursday morning. Following the conclusion of play, the field will be cut to the low 35 percent and ties. The tournament is open to the public and free of charge.