Rose, Varner share lead at Colonial as PGA Tour returns

Justin Rose and Harold Varner III share the first-round lead at the Charles Schwab Challenge, officially marking the return of the PGA Tour after a three-month hiatus.

Rose started hot with a 7-under 63 in the morning wave at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. Varner would later match Rose's score with a bogey-free effort of his own, taking a share of the one-shot lead.

"The good thing is I feel like I didn't max everything out today," Rose said, according to Golf Channel's Will Gray. "Yes, my short game was good, my putting was good, but I feel like there's another level there or another gear or two with the long game."

The former world No. 1 recently split with Honma - the club manufacturer that signed him at the beginning of 2019 - and switched back primarily to TaylorMade clubs. Rose looked like his old self at the venue where he won in 2018.

Varner's brilliant performance, meanwhile, comes one week after the 29-year-old penned an emotional letter addressing the killing of George Floyd in police custody. The PGA Tour did not schedule a tee time for 8:46 a.m. local time and instead observed a minute of silence in honor of Floyd.

Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa are among four players sitting one shot behind the leaders after posting opening-round scores of 64.

Here's how the top of the leaderboard looks after the first round of PGA Tour play since March:

Bryson DeChambeau, Jordan Spieth, Gary Woodland, and Xander Schauffele find themselves in a logjam at 5-under with five other players - including 61-year-old Tom Lehman.

Notables Rory McIlroy (2-under), Brooks Koepka (2-under), and Jon Rahm (1-under) all got off to relatively slow starts in Round 1. The three top-ranked players in the world will begin their second rounds together at 8:56 a.m. ET on Friday.

Round 2 starts at 7:50 a.m. ET.