Shane Lowry the pick of the Irish at Barracuda Championship

American Ollie Schniederjans sits top of the tree after the first round of the Barracuda Championship, three points ahead of his nearest rivals.

The 25-year-old went out in 33 and came back in 31, with his six birdies and an eagle on the par-5 18th giving him a score of 17.

The Barracuda Championship — formerly known as the Reno-Tahoe Open — uses a Modified Stableford format, which allocates points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole.

Eight points are awarded for an albatross, five for an eagle, two for a birdie, zero for a par, minus one for a bogey and minus three for a double bogey or worse.

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Of the four Irish players in the field Shane Lowry is best placed after his opening round of 68, which gave him ten points and a share of 10th place.

Séamus Power’s 69 saw him pick up eight points - he is in a share of 25th place - while Padraig Harrington is on six points and in joint-43rd place after a 71.

Graeme McDowell is tied for 68th with four points after he shot an opening round of 68.

Australian Aaron Baddeley and American Denny McCarthy finished with scores of 14, with the former carding eight birdies and two bogeys while McCarthy hit an eagle, six birdies and a double bogey on the ninth.

Collated first round scores in the USPGA Tour Barracuda Championship (USA unless stated, par 72):

(a) denotes amateurs)
17 Ollie Schniederjans
14 Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Denny McCarthy
13 Robert Streb
12 Hudson Swafford, Ryan Palmer
11 Benjamin Silverman (Can), John Merrick, Tyrone Van Aswegen (Rsa)
10 Matt Jones (Aus), Dylan Meyer, Sam Saunders, Charlie Beljan, Alex Cejka (Ger), Michael Thompson, Stephan Jaeger (Ger), Tom Lovelady, Shane Lowry (Irl)
9 Joel Dahmen, Ethan Tracy, Scott Stallings, Rod Pampling (Aus), Martin Laird (Sco), Patrick Rodgers
8 Jonathan Kaye, Omar Uresti, Norman Xiong (a), Dicky Pride, Kevin Tway, Lanto Griffin, D.J. Trahan, Seamus Power (Irl)
7 Brendon Ger Jonge (Zim), Chris Stroud, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Mark Wilson, Hunter Mahan, Talor Gooch, John Oda, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai), J.J. Spaun, Frank Adams
6 Andrew Putnam, Kris Blanks, Retief Goosen (Rsa), Nick Hardy, Cody Gribble, Matt Every, Doug Ghim, William McGirt, Billy Hurley III, Chad Campbell, Derek Fathauer, Xinjun Zhang (Chn), Johnson Wagner, Padraig Harrington (Irl)
5 Brian Davis (Eng), Peter Malnati, Brett Stegmaier, Steve Wheatcroft, Conrad Shindler, Tom Hoge, Fabian Gomez (Arg), Scottie Scheffler (a), Bill Haas, Cameron Beckman, Brandon Harkins
4 Andrew Yun, Graeme McDowell (NIrl), Martin Flores, Parker McLachlin, Heath Slocum, J.J. Henry, Andres Romero (Arg), Daniel Summerhays
3 Charlie Wi (Kor), Richy Werenski, David Duval, A J McInerney, Martin Piller, Jonas Blixt (Swe), Stuart Appleby (Aus)
2 Vaughn Taylor, Kyle Thompson, David Hearn (Can), John Peterson, David Lingmerth (Swe), Harris English, Sulman Raza, Ben Crane, John Rollins, Arjun Atwal (Ind), Robert Allenby (Aus), Ken Duke, Nick Taylor (Can), Jason Bohn
1 Trey Mullinax, Jay McLuen, Roberto Diaz (Mex), Scott Strohmeyer, Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Jonathan Byrd, Tommy Gainey, Nicholas Lindheim
0 Grant Booth, Cameron Percy (Aus), Jonathan Randolph, Zac Blair, Corey Conners (Can)
-1 Ricky Barnes, George McNeill, Rob Oppenheim, Ryan Blaum, Zecheng Dou (Chn), Craig Barlow, Matt Atkins, Marc Turnesa
-2 Brian Stuard, Richard S Johnson (Swe), Robert Garrigus, Eddie Olson, David Berganio Jnr.
-3 Daniel Chopra (Swe), Brendon Todd
-4 Adam Schenk, Cameron Tringale
-5 Mike Weir (Can), Jason Owen, Frank Lickliter II
-7 Kevin Streelman
-10 Tim Herron
-13 Steven Bowditch (Aus)