Andrew Landry played better than he scored during Thursday’s opening round of the RBC Heritage Classic at Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina while Chris Stroud walked away wishing he could have had some of Landry’s consistency.

Landry posted his fourth score in the 60s in his last five trips around Harbour Town with a 2-under-par 69 that left him tied for 27th. With no bogeys on his card it could have been much lower, but a balky putter managed to convert only two birdies. One of them was from eight inches.

Stroud, on the other hand, rolled in five birdies. He had to settle for an even-par 71 and a tie for 53rd, however, because of three bogeys and a double.

It would have been higher but his putter bailed him out several times. He canned a 39-foot birdie bomb, had a par save from 16-4 and salvaged a bogey from 11-11.

Both of the PNG exes will be chasing Shane Lowry and his 65 when they tee it up close to sunrise Friday. The Pea Patch alums will be braced for high wind and rain when they go out at 6:40 a.m. and 6:50 a.m.

Landry, who came in expecting to do well after a solid Masters showing, played the back nine first and opened with seven consecutive pars. He sank a 12-footer for a birdie 2 on the par 3, 17th and added his only other birdie after hitting the par 5 second in two and two putting.

Over the course of the day, Landry missed five birdie putts ranging from 5-feet-9 to 12-11. His longest par-saving putt was from 5 feet. By the end, he’d taken 31 putts, while ranking 105 in putts per greens in regulation (GIR) and 79th in strokes gained putting (SGP).

Stroud has a chance to stick around for the weekend because he was 14th in SGP and T15 in putts per GIR. Early on, as he also played the back nine first, it looked like he was destined to be among the leaders.

Three birdies in a six-hole stretch, starting at the 12th, got him to 2 under and into a tie for 11th. But a double bogey at 18, following a penalty, dropped him back to even. He needed birdies at the par 4, sixth and the par 4, eighth to offset two bogeys on his second nine.