Arjun Atwal after a birdie on the 18th hole during the US Bank Championship in Milwaukee on Thursday. (AP)

Milwaukee: After struggling with his game for weeks, Arjun Atwal seemed to have captured his old form, at least for the day, with a six-under 64 that saw him in second place after the first round of the US Bank Championship at the Brown Deer Park golf course.

The Indian was three shots behind leader Corey Pavin, who at one stage with eight-under 26 for the front nine looked set for a sub-60 score.

Pavin ended with nine-under 61 in the tournament he won back in 1986.

Starting at the first tee, Atwal birdied the second and then added three more in a row from sixth to eighth to turn in four-under. Two more birdies on 13th and 14th came before he dropped a shot on 15th.

But he made up on 18th with a birdie that saw him finish at six-under.

Atwal has struggled this season with many missed cuts and just one top-10 finish, at Pebble Beach in February.

Last week’s tied 17th place lifted him a little but he is still 126th on the money list and needs to be inside the top-125 to keep his card for next season.

Atwal, who led the Tour’s putting statistics last year, is 88th this season and this is the major reason for his slump.

Pavin broke the US PGA Tour’s nine-hole record with a front-nine 26 en route to a 9-under 61 and a three-stroke lead in the suspended first round.

He birdied his first six holes and eight of the first nine in his bogey-free round on the Brown Deer Park Golf Course.

“It seemed like it was a misprint up there, maybe,” Pavin said.

“It was just one of those nine holes, once in a lifetime for me so far, anyway.”

Pavin said he didn’t feel the start coming at the driving range, but he had his old caddie, Eric Schwarz, back for the second time after a six-month lay-off.

“We’ve worked really hard on the flatstick,” Pavin said. “It showed up at Hartford and it showed up here and those are the two tournaments since he came back on the bag.”

Pavin tied for 21st in the Buick Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut, earlier this month, finishing at 4 under. He bettered that five holes into Thursday’s action.

He started out with a 39-foot birdie putt on the first hole that he felt compelled to apologize for due to his stroke of good luck.

On No. 4, he sank a putt from nearly the same distance and he moved to 6 under with a 4-footer two holes later.

He cooled off briefly when his tee shot flew to the back part of the green on the par-3 seventh, forcing him to putt twice for par.

“I kind of messed up seven, didn’t I?” Pavin said. That par was his only one on the front nine, but he began thinking about shooting the PGA Tour’s lowest round, a 59, after he birdied No. 8.

(Agencies)