Patrick Reed, Harold Varner III lead LIV Golf Dallas

Varner, Reed's 4Aces teammate, had six birdies and a closing bogey.

"For sure. I want to beat him, even though he's a teammate," Varner said.

"It's a lot of fun. It got awkward when he chipped in on the par-5 and I made par. That's when I knew it was going to be fun. Yeah, that's what you want, and I guess we get to do it again tomorrow."

Together, they lifted 4Aces to a score of nine under for the day and a six-shot lead over Crushers GC.

"I mean, I felt like I was behind him all day and really just kind of trying to feed off of him," Reed said about his teammate.

"Harold is out there playing some solid golf, hitting some quality golf shots. It's always nice when you're seeing that because you can feed off of it."

Jon Rahm was a stroke back. Abraham Ancer shot 69, and Dustin Johnson was at 70 with Graeme McDowell, Anirban Lahiri, Richard Bland and David Puig.

Ancer's play was a little erratic as he made seven birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey on the par-3 third, which was his final hole of the day.

"Yeah, very solid round, very happy the way I hit it off the tee," Ancer said. "I think I only missed two fairways that led to two bogeys.

"The rough is no joke out there. But I love golf courses like that that you have to be in the fairway. Definitely hurts to finish the way I finished with a double bogey, obviously. Just felt like I just lost a little bit of concentration on that par-3."

Bryson DeChambeau opened with a 72. He lives in Dallas and played his college golf at SMU.

Points leader Joaquin Niemann, coming off a victory at LIV Golf Virginia, shot 78. He had a 10 on the par-5 seventh.

Brooks Koepka withdrew during the round because of illness. He smashed a tee marker with his driver on the ninth hole.

The Australians have made a dreadful start and are in the lower half of the field. 

Lucas Herbert, Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith all shot three-over 76, with Matt Jones a further stroke back.

with Reuters