Brendon de Jonge is your first round leader at the Deutsche Bank Championship but the question most will ask is what did Jason Day shoot?
First things first. de Jonge opened Friday with a six-under par 65 in windy conditions and difficult pin placements at the TPC Boston that kept scores from going really low. The native of Zimbabwe had only one bogey on his card on a tough day.
He’s the leader by two over a swarm of players who shot four-under par 67s — nine of them to be exact. To find Jason Day, he’s right in the mix with an opening 68, three-under. Day, the hottest player on the planet, started his day with three straight birdies and got it to five-under through 14 holes but a couple of late bogeys, including a three-putt bogey at his final hole of the day, left him three back.
Jordan Spieth continued his downward fall. He had a really bad first nine, starting at the 10th and shot 39 going out and would finish with a 75 that left him in danger of missing the cut in these FedEx Cup playoffs for the second straight week. Bubba Watson, who played with Day and Spieth, wasn’t much better. Watson shot 73.
Day can take over the No. 1 ranking with a victory on Monday but the current No. 1 might have something to say about that. Rory McIlroy opened with a one-under par 70 and gave an overall view of how the course played on day one.
“The wind and some of the pin positions made it tricky and difficult out there,” McIlroy said of the setup. “The greens were the fastest I’ve played in quite a while so it will take some adjusting. I hit a lot of good putts that didn’t go in.”
