Dustin Johnson finally began to resemble the world’s No. 1 player during Thursday’s first-round at the Palmetto Championship.
D.J. got out early and put together a bogey-free, six-under par 65 that left him just a shot behind leader Wes Roach.
It was Johnson’s first outing since he missed the cut at the PGA Championship and this is his only tune-up before next week’s third major of the season — the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.
Johnson played the back nine first and made the turn at Congaree Golf Club in two-under. He then made a seven-footer on the first to go three-under. He his his drive over the green at the short par four third then chipped to five feet and went four-under. He drained a five-footer for his fifth birdie at the sixth then finished his day on a high note at the par four ninth. His approach from 149-yards out missed the green left. He then proceeded to chip-in from 82 feet for his sixth and final birdie of the day.
Johnson was his typical low-key self after the round.
“I don’t know. I just hit shots, wherever it goes, it goes,” Johnson said of his day’s work. “But, yeah, like I said, I was swinging good today, gave myself a lot of opportunities and hit some good putts. So, I’m just pleased with the way I played. I’m playing well, I feel like I’ve been playing pretty good all year, just, like I said, I haven’t putted well, short game’s been a little off, but today I missed it in the right spots when I did miss it, but hit a lot of real quality iron shots and gave myself a lot of looks,” said Johnson, who sits outside the top 100 in Strokes Gained Putting.
There are a lot of outliers in the field and first round leader Wes Roach is one of them. Roach, ranked outside the top 190 in FedEx Cup points, has split his time between the Web.com Tour and the PGA Tour, when he can get into events.
This event had a difficult time attracting top names with the U.S. Open so close.
Eighth-ranked Brooks Koepka, who was squashed by Phil Mickelson at the PGA Championship, showed up and had a not-so-great start with a one-over par 72 that left him tied for 74th. Koepka was two-over coming to the 18th, his final hole of the day but finished by making a 10-footer for birdie.
Johnson had company at six-under including Doc Redman, Chesson Hadley and Erik van Rooyen.
Palmetto Championship Scoreboard:
Brooks Koepka Says His Feud With Bryson Is Good For Golf:
Brooks Koepka is back for the first time since he got steam-rolled by Phil Mickelson at the PGA and naturally, the question put in front of Brooks this week was regarding his perceived “feud” with Bryson DeChambeau.
Koepka was pretty low key with his observations:
“I really do (think it’s good for the game),” Koepka said earlier this week at Congaree. “The fact that golf’s on pretty much every news outlet for about two weeks pretty consistently, I think that’s a good thing. It’s growing the game. I get the traditionalists who don’t agree with it. I understand that, but I think to grow the game you’ve got to reach out to the younger generation. I don’t want to say that’s what this is, but it’s reaching out to a whole bunch of people. It’s getting golf in front of people. I think it’s good for the game.”
