HUALALAI, Hawaii >> Joe Durant’s history at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai is as brief as anyone’s in this week’s elite field.

Playing here for the first time, Durant remembers watching the Champions Tour’s opening event of the season on TV and knew one thing walking the Jack Nicklaus-designed course for the first time in competition — you gotta go crazy low to win.

Well, Durant didn’t set any records, but in blustery conditions that only got worse as the afternoon moved toward evening, the Floridian fired a solid 7-under 65 Thursday to move to the top of the leaderboard. But he’s got plenty of company.

Davis Love III, Tom Pernice Jr. and defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez are just one shot back with 6-under 66s as 11 golfers are within three shots of Durant’s lead. Seventeen of the 43 professionals in the field managed rounds in the 60s, with more of the same needed today to have any chance at winning on Saturday.

Durant had nine birdies, including seven during his 11 opening holes, to take advantage of these pure Bermuda greens that past winners love. Durant had one practice and two pro-am rounds to get used to the greens. Based on his score, he made the necessary adjustments.

“I putted beautifully today and I think that was kind of the key,” Durant said. “Made a couple of good putts right out of the gate and yeah, I was real happy. The wind was a little tougher today, it was a little heavier and it was definitely a lot stronger than we had in the two pro-am rounds. It was a little different animal today.

“I think what I figured out is whatever break you see, kind of cut it in half because these greens just don’t tend to break very much and I think that helped me a lot, too.”

A 30-footer for birdie at the par-4 third got Durant moving in the right direction. A bogey at the par-3 fifth occurred after hitting his tee shot in the water. He thought it was a good one when it left his stick — even posed for it — but just came up a bit short. He birdied the next three and five of six when he bogeyed again at the par-3 12th. Two birdies, including one at the par-3 17th, were all he managed over the final seven holes, but it was good enough to hold off his pursuers.

Among those in second, Pernice has the most tours of duty here with five. In 2014, he tied for eighth, his best finish, but he has a history of going low in Hawaii. Two years ago at the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship, Pernice had a 12-under 60 at Kapolei, but Paul Goydos got the win.

Pernice had nothing but pars on the front side en route to a ho-hum 36. But on the back, he got jiggy with it, birdieing six of nine coming in. He will be paired with Durant in today’s second 18 of the 54-hole event.

“I had a couple of saves on the front that kind of kept me going,” Pernice said. “I didn’t make any bogeys and then I played a great back nine. I felt good about my short game coming in. The saves I made really kept me in the game.”

Love is in the game as well thanks to some nice ball-striking.

“I hit the ball pretty solid,” said Love, who is playing this tournament for only the second time. “I hit a couple of bad drives, but other than that I hit the ball real solid. I made, I guess, really one or two tough putts, longer putts, but really just hit it well enough that I had a lot of birdie chances and got the par-5s. Other than one bogey, pretty solid day.”

That’s one reason Durant wants to keep it going. He knows another 65 is just what the golfers ordered on this forgiving course.

“Yeah, I’ve watched this tournament on television several times and I remember Loren (Roberts) shot something ridiculous one year,” Durant said of Roberts’ 2006 winning 27-under performance. “And it seems like every year there’s some pretty low scores. You’ve got to get to 15 to 20 (under) to even have a shot at it.”