Verona, N.Y. ? Jason Bohn knew in his heart he made the right choice. On Thursday, his golf game confirmed it.

Opting to defend his B.C. Open title instead of playing in the British Open, Bohn shot a 6-under 66 to tie Harrison Frazar for second, one shot behind 45-year-old Mark Brooks after the first round.

“I’m in contention,” said Bohn, who has made 12 straight cuts. “The British is my favorite major, but this is the last B.C. Open. They deserve to have the defending champion.”

Gabriel Hjertstedt, the 1997 B.C. Open champ, was two strokes back at 67 along with former Kansas University golfer Matt Gogel as well as Scott Gutschewski, Daisuke Maruyama, Omar Uresti, Scott Gump, John Rollins, Ryuji Imada, B.J. Staten and Jason Schultz.

The final B.C. Open – it’s being dropped from the PGA Tour after this year – isn’t being played at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott for the first time since the event became a regular tour stop in 1972.

For Brooks, who hasn’t held a first-round lead in a decade and whose seventh and last victory on tour was the 1996 PGA Championship, his lone bogey proved a blessing in disguise.

“I had a bad tee shot and it turned out to be key,” said Brooks, who opened the 1996 Byron Nelson Classic with a 64, then watched Phil Mickelson win it. “I got stymied behind a tree, chipped out, missed the green, pitched and made a good 10-footer for bogey. That was a pretty good putt.”