AP – Jarrod Lyle made a bright start to the US PGA Tour event in Las Vegas on Thursday as his heart-warming comeback from leukaemia continued to gather pace.

In only his second top-tier US PGA event in more than two-and-a-half years, the 33-year-old Australian carded an opening round five-under-par 66 at the Shriners Hospitals Open to sit tied for fourth, two shots behind Scotland’s Martin Laird and American Stewart Cink.

Lyle finished tied for 31st in California last week – his first start since twice receiving treatment for leukaemia – after qualifying for the season-opener, and is playing this week on a sponsor’s exemption.

The leaders are one stroke in front of Scotland’s Russell Knox, while Lyle sits alongside five other players – Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Americans Bo Van Pelt, Brian Stuard, Andrew Svoboda and Sam Saunders.

Organisers didn’t quite squeeze in the entire first round at TPC Summerlin, where darkness halted play with three players still to finish.

Laird, who held the halfway lead in Napa, California, last week, birdied three of his first four holes.

He added back-to-back birdies at eight and nine, and capped a bogey-free round with birdies at 15 and 18.

Laird, who claimed his last US Tour title at the 2013 Texas Open, capped his round with a 40-foot birdie bomb at the final hole.

“It was nice to see that one go in,” Laird said.

“I missed a bunch of opportunities on the back nine, putted great on the front and hit it actually better on the back than I did the front nine, just kept missing eight-, 10-footers.”

Cink also played without a bogey, nabbing five of his seven birdies on the back nine.

“Well, 64 is good for anybody, I think, but on the first day of the year, you don’t really ever know what’s going to come out, the first day of the season,” said Cink, whose last victory came at the 2009 British Open.

“I just kind of was patient and waited for a good stretch, and a good stretch happened.”