He played right in front of the commotion Thursday, out ahead of the masses following one Tiger Woods.
Defending champion Jon Rahm had a pretty good day and the defending champion made a great save at the 18th to put a four-under par 68 on the board.
Rahm drew what looked like a pretty good lie in the left rough and went for the green on the closing par five with three-wood. He didn’t even come close, his ball was a good 10 yards short — right in the drink. He made a decent fourth to 12 feet then holed the par-saving putt and responded with an approving fist pump.
Rahm, winner at last week’s CareerBuilder, was one of five players to shoot four-under on the South.
This is another event where you don’t know the true leader until the 36-hole mark. Rahm will move to the more birdie-friendly North Course for his second round.
The low score of day one came from that layout and it was bomber Tony Finau who turned in a 65, despite two bogeys on his card. The tour’s longest hitter keeps improving his short game and has the tools to play well when he moved to the South Course Friday.
Ted Potter Jr., no relation to Harry, was someone you’d never expect to shoot 66 on the South. Potter has had a tough time making cuts this year. He lost his card and had to spend 2017 on the Web.com to get it back. He was in at six-under along with Ryan Palmer, both on the South.
But the bulk of the talk Thursday turned to Woods. He got off to a nervous start with bogey at the first on the South Course, took another at the fifth and turned one-over. But he found some consistency late in his round, played the last three holes one-under and nearly made hole-in-one with a marvelous six-iron into the 188-yard 16th. He’ll head to the North Course for his second round.
