Just two shots separated the top 35 players on the leaderboard late into the opening round at Palmerston Golf and Country Club on Thursday before American Nate Jordi stormed home with birdies at 15, 16 and 17 in a bogey-free 8-under 63.

Raised in Massachusetts but now playing out of Pine Forest Country Club in Georgia, Jordi only signed up to the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Qualifying School at Kinderlou Forest in July as a warm-up for another event yet earned enough status to tempt him Down Under.

He missed the cut at the season-opening PNG Open but has put a four-stroke gap between himself and the rest of the field with what the 20-year-old says is the best round of his life.

“I really didn’t have many expectations going into this,” said Jordi post-round.

“My hopes were to have a good round, to have a lot of fun, to enjoy my time out there because golf’s a sport, it’s supposed to be fun. So that was my only expectation, to go out and have fun.

“This is my only second real event other than PNG; that was my first one. So no, I was very shaky to start, but I made some putts and, trust in the Lord, and he took me the rest of the way.”

That Jordi is in the Northern Territory is remarkable in itself.

As a 13-year-old, he won 17 of 21 events on the New England PGA Junior Tour… and finished top three in the four others.

But when his granddad, Howard Jordi, lost his foot due to diabetes the next year, Jordi’s junior golf career came to an abrupt halt.

“That was the last year actually that my granddad was actually able to be with me on the golf course,” said an emotional Jordi.

“He lost his foot due to diabetes and hasn’t been able to be out there with me.

“It kind of went downhill from there for a while until I met Mike Taylor, who took great care of me and now I’m starting to get back on track a little bit.”

Taylor, the former coach of US Open champion Lucas Glover and five-time PGA TOUR winner Harris English, is based at Sea Island in Georgia.

Prior to finding Taylor, Jordi spent time working on commercial fishing charters out of Newport, Rhode Island and is already booked on a boat for some fishing off the Top End on Monday.

If he can follow up his performance from Thursday over the coming three days, it might be the second big catch of the week.

“To be honest, I’m very golf stupid,” said Jordi, who had never used a yardage book or pin sheet prior to Round 1.

“I really had no idea what this tour even was until I found out that it was a legit tour. And I talked to people, your team has been wonderful and we figured out what time to be there and all that.

“I played my Q School there as a practice round and ended up making it so figured I’d come over here and give it a shot.”

After uncustomary fog lifted mid-morning, temperatures rose to 33 degrees, the building humidity only adding to the challenge of the golf course.

Gold Coast’s Jack Munro posted 4-under in the morning along with Qualifying School medallist Jimmy Zheng, their 67s holding up as the best of the day until Jordi’s late flurry.

Brisbane’s Tim Hart shot 67 in the afternoon to join Munro and Zheng at 4-under in a tie for second, 14 players a further shot back at 3-under par 69.

Round 1 also marked the competitive return of Jeffrey Guan following the tragic accident that left him blind in his left eye less than 12 months ago.

The 21-year-old from Sydney had two birdies, three bogeys and a double-bogey in a round of 74 and will start Round 2 in a tie for 95th.