WESTFIELD, Ind. — Laurie Canter and the Majesticks Golf Club are making a late-season push for something they have never achieved: a LIV Golf team title.

Canter fired a career-best 8-under 62 on Thursday to take a one-stroke lead over Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith and Wild Card player Richard T. Lee after the opening round of the season-ending LIV Golf Indianapolis Championship.

His sizzling start also helped the all-English Majesticks grab the team lead at 17 under at The Club at Chatham Hills, two shots ahead of Ripper GC and Legion XIII.

Meanwhile, Filipino wildcard Miguel Tabuena shot a 71.

The Majesticks have never won a team trophy and have failed to finish on the podium in any of the past 53 LIV Golf stroke-play events. They now have three rounds to turn their recent resurgence into a breakthrough championship.

“I hope we can do that the next three days,” Canter said. “It would be massive. For all the people who work for Majesticks and us as players, to have a real run at a team event would be a lot of fun.”

The team endured a difficult start to the season, finishing 11th or worse in eight of their first nine tournaments. But a fifth-place finish at LIV Golf United Kingdom and another tie for fifth at LIV Golf New York have given the team renewed confidence heading into the finale.

“It’s a strange situation because we’ve not played great as a team throughout most of the year,” said co-captain Lee Westwood, who tied for third in New York and opened Thursday with a 6-under 64.

“Obviously we’ve just hit a bit of form recently. But to have a great chance to do something this week is obviously something we didn’t expect to happen. We’re obviously grabbing it with both hands.”

Canter, an original Majesticks member from LIV Golf’s inaugural 2022 season, has also found his best form at the right time. He has recorded three of his top four finishes this season in his last four starts, including top-15 results in Korea and the UK and a season-best tie for 11th in New York.

He overcame an early bogey Thursday by responding with birdies on five of his next six holes before adding more birdies on the back nine.

Canter returned to the Majesticks this season after Henrik Stenson’s relegation created a vacancy, but admitted it took time to regain his confidence.

“Early on, to be honest, because I felt like I was really not finding my game, my sort of personal pride probably took a hit with it,” Canter said. “I’ve wanted to play better and contribute to the team more and try and feel like I could drive some good performances. Maybe I tried a bit hard to do that initially.”

Smith, meanwhile, enjoyed a breakthrough in an area that had troubled him all season.

The Ripper GC captain hit all 14 fairways, just the fourth time he has achieved perfect accuracy off the tee in a LIV Golf tournament and his first in three years.

Smith entered the tournament ranked 53rd in driving accuracy at 51.79 percent.