After representing other golfers for a while, Rick Fehr is enjoying working for himself again.

Fehr, who played 16 years on the PGA Tour before entering the business realm of the sport, traded toiling as a golf agent for grinding on the Champions Tour, beginning with this weekend’s Pacific Links Hawaii Championship at Kapolei Golf Course.

Although he’s a veteran of tournament golf, Fehr wasn’t immune to a few butterflies as he lined up the first shot of his fresh start.

"I was surprised, I was a little more nervous than I thought I’d be," Fehr said following his Champions Tour debut on Friday.

"I tried to enter with low expectations, but still it’s the first tee."

Fehr skirted the water on the left side of the fairway with his tee shot but stayed dry and eventually birdied the first hole of his opening round.

That sparked a solid start for Fehr, who then weathered a rough stretch in the middle of the round before finishing strong with three birdies in his final four holes and signing for a 2-under-par 70.

"There’s nothing better," Fehr said of his return to playing. "There’s still the frustrations. Everyone says, ‘Just go have fun. How can you not have fun? You’re in Hawaii.’ But we’re competitors. … But I’ve been at it long enough to know you have your good weeks and bad weeks. I’m very happy with my start."

Fehr, a BYU graduate, won twice in his 16 years on the PGA Tour, capturing the B.C. Open in 1986 and the Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic in 1994.

He played on the tour until 2001 before deciding to pursue the business aspect of the game and founded Fehr Sports Management.

"It gave me an appreciation for that side of the business, the corporate side," said Fehr, who represented Champions Tour veteran Loren Roberts.

"I’m not necessarily a born salesman, and being a sports agent you have to be really good at sales. I hung in there and I think I did a pretty good job for my clients, and I’m happy to be playing now."

Even as he embarks on a new venture in golf, he feels a lot more at home now that he’s the one swinging the clubs.

"I have 20 years of experience doing this and five years or so of experience doing the other," he said.

Fehr turned 50 on Aug. 28 and the Champions Tour’s stop in Hawaii represented his first chance to break back into the game. He said he wasn’t sure he’d be eligible to play as late as last spring. But once he got his status for the remainder of this season and next year squared away, "I tried to hurry and get prepared and I’ve still been working up to this point."

His short game worked awfully well on Friday to get him into red numbers. He hit nine fairways and nine greens in regulation, but relied on his precision with his wedges and putter.

He one-putted 11 holes and stroked 24 total putts in the round.

"My 60-degree wedge, I may take a Lloyd’s of London policy out on it; it saved me so many shots out there," said Fehr, whose wife, Terri, is caddying for him this week.

"Just one of those days where that part of my game was working."