Bridgeman, who has missed the cut in his last three starts, covered his final seven holes in five under par to card an opening eight-under-par 63 at TPC Twin Cities.
The world No.206 made a hat-trick of birdies from the 12th, holed out from a bunker for another on the 17th and also birdied the last to edge ahead of Canada's Mackenzie Hughes, who had posted a flawless 64.
"Never had struggles with my confidence until these last few weeks," Bridgeman said. "I I told a couple people I felt like I've been kicked in the face."
Bridgeman went fishing Sunday, took Monday off, hit a few balls late Tuesday and played in a Wednesday pro-am. He also spoke with his girlfriend, parents and college coach, the latter of whom reminded him one of his biggest strengths was his mental game.
"He was kind of talking me through some of the stuff we did in college, how we build each other up," Bridgeman said. "He would always walk with me and he would help me."
Hughes had a bogey-free round. The Canadian won the second of his two PGA Tour titles last year in the Sanderson Farms Championship.
"I knew in the first kind of three or four holes that I had something nice going with the putter," Hughes said.
"At that point it was just a matter of making sure I gave myself as many looks as possible and got the ball on the green and let the putter do the work. You don't get those days super often when the hole starts looking pretty big."
Patrick Rodgers, Martin Trainer and Andrew Novak are two shots back.
Sahith Theegala was at 66 with Gary Woodland, Kevin Streelman, Taylor Pendrith, Stewart Cink, Michael Thorbjornsen, Kurt Kitayama and Hayden Springer. Tony Finau, the 2022 champion, shot 67.
Open Championship runner-up Billy Horschel had earlier withdrawn from the penultimate regular event of the PGA Tour season ahead of his first round.
Horschel, who birdied the last three holes in the final round at Royal Troon on Sunday to share second place with Justin Rose, cited illness in quotes given to tournament officials.
"Yeah, it was unfortunate," the world No.33 said. "I wasn't feeling great late last night and took some medicine.
"Had decent sleep but woke up and just have a fever, body is just not wanting to respond, every muscle feels like it's locked up. Tried to do a little warm-up in the gym, just didn't respond."
Cam Davis (68) is tied 24th and the leading Australian.
Davis began his round with a bogey on the 10th but then had three birdies in a row on 16, 17 and 18.
He also birdied the second and seventh, with his only other blemish coming on the par-four third.
with AP
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