Jimmy Walker hasn’t won in four years. Neither has Charley Hoffman.
Walker’s last win was the 2016 PGA Championship, Charley won the Texas Open four years ago.
Both veterans are making a bid for redemption this week in Mississippi at the Sanderson Farms Championship and they got right to it as both opened with eight-under par 64s at the Country Club of Jackson.
But if those two vets think it will be easy, defending champion Sebastian Munoz added his name to the mix late in the day, along with another one-time winner — Kevin Chappell.
Munoz, who got his breakthrough win at Sanderson last year, birdied four straight coming home starting at the 13th for a back nine 31 to join the leaders.
Chappell, who got his only win at the 2017 Texas Open, is playing with limited status.
Though it was crowded at the top, Canadian Michael Gligic was the only player at seven-under par 65.
Like last week’s Corales Puntacana Championship, this one is another all-out assault on par. By day’s end, 83 of the 144 players broke par at the Country Club of Jackson.
One player who didn’t was the Korn Ferry’s top player — Will Zalatoris. He’s played nine of the past 10 weeks and showing the wear, he finished with a one-over par 73, leaving him tied for 106th and in danger of missing the 36-hole cut. Same for Scottie Scheffler. Scheffler, one of the tour’s hottest players, was forced to withdraw from the U.S. Open after testing positive for the COVID-19 virus. Scheffler showed the rust from his layoff and finished with 73.
