American Scott Piercy admits he his reaping the rewards of a new putter after producing a new course record to lead after the first round of the Safeway Open.

Piercy, 5.25 to win the tournament, admitted his 2015-16 season was disappointing despite just missing out on an appearance at the Tour Championship.

His best results came at the US Open, where he finished in a tie for second and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational where he came second on his own.

He finished way down the field in the last few tournaments but Piercy still managed to make $2.905million in 24 starts.

However, his putting let him down throughout the campaign but his new one was red hot on Thursday as he fired a 10-under-par 62.

The world number 35 fired 12 birdies and two bogeys to take a two-shot lead from England’s Paul Casey and fellow American Patton Kizzire.

Speaking after his round, he told PGA tour.com: “The putter held me back but there was a lot of good. “It was pretty easy to see what’s going wrong.

When you break it down and say, ‘Alright, there’s a lot of good ball striking; chipping was actually pretty good,’ but the putter kind of fell flat on its face.”

With Casey and Kizzire hot on Piercy’s heels, they will still need to look over their shoulder for Johnson Wagner and Kyle Stanley who are one-shot further back on seven-under par.

John Rahm, Troy Merritt, Bill Haas are all on six-under in a tie for sixth, while Scotland’s Martin Laird is one of six players currently five shots off the lead.