Playing in the day’s first group, Bill Loeffler, of Castle Rock, shot a 3-under-par 69 for a spot near the top of the leader board at the Senior PGA Championship.

Loeffler recorded four birdies in Thursday’s opening round at the Colorado Golf Club in Parker.

"It was very special,” the club pro said. “It was fun to be the first ball out, being from Colorado, kind of starting the whole event here. I played above my expectations today, obviously.”

Loeffler birdied consecutive par 5’s on the back nine, holes 15 and 16, and finished the day three strokes out of the lead.

As of 5 p.m., Bernhard Langer and Robin Freeman were atop the board, completing their rounds at 6-under. Brad Bryant finished the day 4-under.

Others who shot rounds of 3-under-par included Fred Couples and Bill Glasson.

A few well-known players withdrew from the tournament Thursday morning: Peter Jacobsen (illness), Hal Sutton (hip) and Paul Azinger (flu).

Loeffler, the co-owner of Highlands Ranch Golf Club, was able to finish his round before the wind — a problem for all competitors during practice rounds — picked up in the afternoon.

"It's probably going to blow tomorrow afternoon,” Loeffler said. “I'm glad that I got my round, a good round, in this morning, because if I would have shot 75 or something or 73 this morning, then I'm looking at starting at [12:50] tomorrow with possibly 40-mile an hour winds. It's kind of hard to shoot 68 in 40-mile an hour winds out here.”

Loeffler is joined in the championship by two other Douglas County residents. Gary Hallberg was 1-over par through 14 holes and Dale Douglass finished the day 9-over.