This week: Nationwide Tour's Oregon Classic, Thursday through Sunday, Shadow Hills Country Club, Junction City, Ore.

First-round score: 3-under-par 69.

Position: Putnam is tied for 10th, four strokes behind leader Ryan Hietala (65).

Recap: Someone else gets to be the early pace setter, and for Putnam, that might not be a bad thing. He's still getting off to good starts – it was the 12th time in his past 13 tournaments he's posted a first round of par or better – and Thursday was no exception. He birdied all the par-5s by getting up and down from around the green (once out of a bunker), sinking a 7-foot putt on the 18th hole for his 69. "They weren't all easy birdies," Putnam said. And for a tight course – it's a par-72 at 7,007 yards – the Tacoma native went at it aggressively. "It's a really tight course, so you have to position your tee shots. You can still hit driver on a lot of holes, and I hit driver more (Thursday) than I did last week," he said.

Tee time Friday: 1 p.m. PDT off the 10th tee.