Chris Stroud and Andrew Landry survived gusty afternoon winds Thursday to shoot one-over-par 72s in the opening round of the Valspar Championship on the rugged Copperhead Course at the Innisbrook Resort outside Tampa.

On a day when most of the better scores were shot during much calmer morning conditions, the Port Neches-Groves exes walked away tied for 69th. Both players signed scorecards that showed three bogeys and two birdies.

Joel Dahmen and Sepp Straka are tied for the lead at 66. Lamar University ex Shawn Stefani was two strokes off the lead in a tie for seventh place. Stefani jumped up the leaderboard when he holed his second shot from 156 yards for an eagle on the 16th hole.

Stroud began his round with 11 consecutive pars before making back-to-back bogeys at 12 and 13. He stopped the bleeding with a birdie from 10 inches on the par 4, 14th, gave the shot away with a bogey at 15, then rolled in a 16-foot birdie on the par 4, 16th.

Landry, playing the back nine first, got off to a birdie-birdie start, hitting a wedge to two inches from 120-yards on the par 4, 10th, then making a 4-footer on the par 5 11th. His bogeys came at 18, 2 and 6.

On the Web.com Tour, West Orange-Stark ex Michael Arnaud opened with a four-under-par 67 and is tied for 17th in the Chitimacha Louisiana Open being played outside Lafayette.