PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Shawn Stefani is the latest PGA Tour rookie to look comfortable on a big stage.

It just took him a little longer to get there.

In breezy conditions on a tough golf course, Stefani never came close to making a bogey until his final hole Thursday in the Tampa Bay Championship. He rolled in a par putt from just inside 5 feet to complete a 6-under 65 and take a two-shot lead over Brian Harman.

“Kind of fought through a couple of bad shots coming in — or not so great shots — and managed to get balls up-and-down and make a few putts,” Stefani said. “So all in all, today was a great day and looking forward to getting out there tomorrow.”

There’s not many “bad” shots in a bogey-free round on the Copperhead course at Innisbrook, which some consider the best track on the Florida swing. The course played just more than two shots over par. Only 13 players broke 70, and 25 players broke par.

Harman came up short and into a bunker on the ninth hole and closed with his lone bogey for a 67. Harris English finished on the 18th and also hit into a bunker, except that he three-putted from 40 feet above the hole and had a double bogey. That gave him a 68, tied with Brendan Steele and Tag Ridings.

Geoff Ogilvy, at No. 49 in the world and needing to stay in the top 50 the next three weeks to get into the Masters, was in the large group at 69 that included Lucas Glover and a pair of past champions in Vijay Singh and K.J. Choi.

Stefani is a 31-year-old from the Houston area who finally made it to the PGA Tour by finishing 16th on the Web.com Tour money list. He is playing new courses and staying in unfamiliar places, though he had at least a few examples of other rookies this year to show the way.

Russell Henley won the Sony Open, and another rookie (Scott Langley) played with him in the final group. Three others have played in the final group this year — Brad Fritsch at Torrey Pines, James Hahn at Pebble Beach and Luke Guthrie two weeks ago at the Honda Classic.

“It’s great to see those guys play well, because I competed with those guys all last year and they all won — except Scott — on the Web.com last year a few times and they are all super nice guys, good players,” Stefani said. “Everybody hits their strides differently. I’m more of patient kind of guy, and just kind of wait for things to happen. I know eventually things will start clicking, and I’ve really been close to playing good all year.”

Defending champion Luke Donald opened with a 70 and was angrier than usual, a testament to the course. Donald was poised to open with a great round, at 4 under with four holes to play despite missing three birdie chances inside 12 feet.

A poor drive led to bogey on the sixth. His tee shot on the par-3 eighth rolled toward the back lip of a bunker. And then a flier out of the rough on No. 9 sailed over the green and into a slope in the bunker with very little sand. That made for three bogeys in four holes, and turned a solid round into a frustrating one.

“At one point I felt I should have been 5 or 6 under,” Donald said. “To walk off with a 70 and play like that is hard to take. It was shame to cough up a couple of shots. Fifteen of those holes, I played really solid golf.”

Some of the early starters arrived in darkness, the temperatures cool and the wind already blowing.

This hasn’t been the best weather on the PGA Tour this year. Already there was such high wind at Kapalua that the tournament didn’t start until the fourth day. Fog wiped out an entire day in San Diego. Snow put the Match Play Championship one day behind. And temperatures were in the 40s early Sunday when the tour first arrived in Florida.

“It felt more like a major championship today,” Steele said. “Usually the head at the U.S. Open is a few under after the first round at least, even if the winning score ends up being over par. To see it only be 3 under at this point is really a testament to how good the golf course is and how difficult the conditions are. Put that combo together and it’s not a course that you fake it around. It’s not a course you can get away with bad shots.”

Stefani did very little wrong.

With the wind at his back, he hit wedge into 2 feet for birdie on the 10th hole to start his round. He made birdie on all four of the par 5s with a short game that he practiced for two solid days earlier in the week. He added his other birdie with a 20-foot putt on the third hole.

Most importantly, he made few mistakes. Stefani missed only three greens, got up-and-down from the bunker all three times and had to play out of the rough just once, with a tee shot he missed slightly to the left on No. 3.

“If you can drive the ball well out here, you can give yourself enough opportunities,” Stefani said. “But it’s a tough driving course, and I was able to hit a lot of fairways, which put me in good position to make birdies.”

Harman has had some good rounds this year, such as his 65 in Phoenix on the second day, closing with a 66 in Puerto Rico and even the 67 he had at Riviera. But this one stood out for other reasons.

“This is definitely, probably the best thought-out rounds that I had,” he said. “I had a great game plan and stuck to it all day.”

That included his lone bogey, when he wasn’t sure if his ball would jump out of the rough to the right of the ninth fairway. He opted for less club, a 7-iron, figuring that anything long would lead to bogey. He came up short and still made bogey, but at least he had a chance at par.

DIVOTS: Jimmy Johnson, the caddie for Steve Stricker, is working the next two weeks for Harris English. Johnson didn’t work at Doral last week because that was the one tournament Stricker had his wife, Nicki, caddie for him. ... John Daly opened with a 72. ... Geoff Ogilvy had the low round (69) in the all-Australian group alongside good friend Adam Scott and Jason Day. Scott and Day each had 70.

TAMPA BAY CHAMPIONSHIP SCORES

Thursday

First Round

Shawn Stefani 33-32—65

Brian Harman 33-34—67

Tag Ridings 33-35—68

Brendan Steele 36-32—68

Harris English 32-36—68

Chez Reavie 34-35—69

Vijay Singh 34-35—69

K.J. Choi 37-32—69

Dicky Pride 37-32—69

Peter Tomasulo 36-33—69

Roberto Castro 36-33—69

Lucas Glover 35-34—69

Geoff Ogilvy 33-36—69

J.J. Henry 35-35—70

Luke Donald 37-33—70

Nick Watney 34-36—70

Patrick Cantlay 37-33—70

Billy Horschel 38-32—70

Marc Leishman 36-34—70

Scott Brown 37-33—70

Adam Scott 37-33—70

Jason Day 36-34—70

Jerry Kelly 37-33—70

Trevor Immelman 34-36—70

Justin Hicks 36-34—70

Greg Chalmers 35-36—71

Daniel Summerhays 36-35—71

Troy Matteson 38-33—71

Brian Davis 36-35—71

Colt Knost 38-33—71

Ryan Palmer 38-33—71

John Senden 38-33—71

Charlie Wi 34-37—71

Ryo Ishikawa 36-35—71

Sergio Garcia 36-35—71

Brendon de Jonge 36-35—71

David Skinns 38-33—71

Cameron Tringale 36-35—71

George Coetzee 39-32—71

Justin Leonard 33-38—71

Jason Dufner 34-37—71

Gary Woodland 36-35—71

Tim Herron 35-36—71

Charley Hoffman 37-34—71

Pat Perez 38-33—71

Brad Fritsch 35-36—71

For complete scores,

visit RN-T.com.

Troy Kelly 36-36—72

John Daly 36-36—72

Richard H. Lee 39-33—72

Jesper Parnevik 38-34—72

George McNeill 36-36—72

Jim Furyk 36-36—72

Bryce Molder 37-35—72

Stephen Ames 37-35—72

Jeff Overton 37-35—72

Casey Wittenberg 37-35—72

Jim Herman 38-34—72

D.H. Lee 38-34—72

Boo Weekley 37-35—72

Will Claxton 38-34—72

Tom Gillis 38-34—72

Scott Langley 37-35—72

Matt Kuchar 35-37—72

Aaron Baddeley 38-34—72

Robert Garrigus 37-35—72

Greg Owen 38-34—72

Camilo Villegas 38-34—72

Ben Kohles 37-35—72

Jordan Spieth 38-34—72

Kevin Chappell 36-37—73

Graham DeLaet 37-36—73

Martin Flores 38-35—73

Scott Piercy 39-34—73

Ted Potter, Jr. 38-35—73

Webb Simpson 37-36—73

Martin Laird 36-37—73

Andres Romero 37-36—73

Patrick Reed 39-34—73

Robert Streb 37-36—73

Eric Meierdierks 37-36—73

Jimmy Walker 36-37—73

Matt Every 36-37—73

Ricky Barnes 38-35—73

D.J. Trahan 35-38—73

Rory Sabbatini 37-36—73

Louis Oosthuizen 38-35—73

Y.E. Yang 36-37—73

Sean O’Hair 38-35—73

Sang-Moon Bae 34-39—73

Kevin Streelman 39-34—73

Steven Bowditch 36-37—73

Fabian Gomez 36-37—73

Scott Gardiner 37-36—73

Kevin Sutherland 37-37—74

Carl Pettersson 38-36—74

Martin Kaymer 39-35—74

Ben Crane 38-36—74

Angel Cabrera 40-34—74

Jeff Klauk 37-37—74

Josh Teater 41-33—74

Luke Guthrie 38-36—74

Kevin Stadler 39-35—74

John Mallinger 39-35—74

David Lingmerth 35-39—74

Bud Cauley 38-36—74

Matt Jones 37-37—74

David Hearn 38-36—74

Stuart Appleby 39-35—74

Charlie Beljan 38-36—74

Brian Gay 35-39—74

James Driscoll 39-35—74

Jin Park 37-37—74

David Bradshaw 38-36—74

Joey Snyder III 37-38—75

John Huh 35-40—75

Mark Wilson 39-36—75

Robert Allenby 38-37—75

Wes Short, Jr. 36-39—75

Tommy Gainey 38-37—75

Chris Stroud 39-36—75

Brian Stuard 38-37—75

Henrik Norlander 37-38—75

Luke List 38-37—75

Jason Kokrak 39-36—75

Chad Campbell 38-37—75

Jonas Blixt 39-36—75

Lee Williams 36-39—75

Erik Compton 39-36—75

Justin Bolli 40-35—75

William McGirt 37-39—76

Ken Duke 38-38—76

Retief Goosen 38-38—76

Stewart Cink 39-37—76

John Rollins 41-35—76

David Toms 38-38—76

Andy Pope 40-36—76

Peter Uihlein 39-37—76

Scott Stallings 39-38—77

D.A. Points 37-40—77

Seung-Yul Noh 41-36—77

Cameron Percy 39-38—77

Alistair Presnell 40-37—77

David Mathis 38-39—77

Michael Thompson 38-39—77

Zach Johnson 41-36—77

Ryan Moore 39-39—78

Mike Weir 44-34—78

Jason Bohn 40-38—78

Nicholas Thompson 36-42—78

Ross Fisher 40-38—78

Bob Estes 39-40—79

James Hahn 41-38—79

Michael Bradley 42-37—79

Rod Perry 42-37—79

Doug LaBelle II 41-39—80

Tim Petrovic 41-41—82