Harris English had arguably the best first nine holes this season on the PGA Tour Thursday at TPC Southwind and had the famous “59 Watch” in effect at the WGC-St. Jude.
English was pure magic in Memphis, at least for nine holes — he birdied the first four to begin his second start since his victory at The Travelers in June. Three more birdies at six, seven and nine an English had the best nine hole score of his career — 28.
As quickly as that “59 Watch” came on — it ended as Harris bogeyed two of his first three holes to start his final nine. He fought back from those with birdies on three of the closing four holes and tied his career low with an eight-under par 62 — good for a two-shot lead after day one.
“I’ve had a lot of success here,” English pointed out. “Got my first Tour win here (2013). I feel like my game’s really consistent now. Putting good, my speed (on putts) is good, hitting it good. My strategy has been good here so I’m gonna stick with that,” said Harris, who continues to make his case for a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
Four players were in at 64 — Ian Poulter, Matt Wolff, Carlos Ortiz and Jim Herman. Ortiz was in medal contention at the Olympics in Tokyo two weeks ago until a final round 78 dropped him into a tie for 42nd. Herman is the outlier among the leaders — he’s had a pretty miserable 2021 with no top 20s, he’s 170th in FedEx Cup points and ranked No. 143 in the world. His win last year at the Wyndham got him into this event and will allow him to keep his Tour card for 2022.
Distance-obsessed, COVID-contracting, Brooks-battling, U.S. Open-winning, Kyle Berkshire-admiring, rules-arguing Bryson DeChambeau showed no ill effects of his bout with COVID that kept him out of the Olympics two weeks ago. Although he’s down 10 pounds, his game was pretty sharp as he finished with a 65 along with Scottie Scheffler and Marc Leishman.
World’s No. 1 Jon Rahm is the only one of the world’s top 12 not in the field this week. No. 2 Dustin Johnson shot a so-so 69, Collin Morikawa, who lost a shot at the Bronze Medal two weeks ago in the seven-man playoff, shot 67. No. 4 Xander Schauffele, the Gold Medalist in Tokyo, shot 69 while Justin Thomas shot 67 despite hitting his tee shot into the water at the 18th.
DeChambeau bettered his social media nemesis, Brooks Koepka (70) by five shots. No. 8 Louie Oosthuizen turned in a 67. The underachievers from the top 10 were No. 9 Patrick Cantlay (71) and Viktor Hovland (73).
Joel Dahmen Leads At Barracuda:
While the big names are in Memphis, the lesser names are playing for points at the Barracuda Championship at the Tahoe Mountain Club and Joel Dahmen, winner of one Tour event, was the best of them on Thursday.
Dahmen scored 16 points with eight birdies in a bogey-free round. “It was the best I could have done today, probably,” Dahmen said. “I made every putt. Yeah, it’s tough at altitude sometimes. You don’t really know what you’re doing out here. It’s all guess. With the wind blowing the way it was, I didn’t have a number in mind or anything, but I hit some bad shots that turned out great, hit some good shots that turned out good, and my ball just found the hole today.”
Stephan Jaeger of Germany was sitting in second by himself second with 14 points. He eagled the par-four eighth and par-five 12th on Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood Course.
“Obviously, in this format eagles really catapult you forward, five points,” Jaeger said. “One was a three-footer on eight. I hit it on the green and it was pretty short. The other one — I made like a 25-footer.”
Scott Harrington was third at 13, Michael Thompson and Emiliano Grillo had 12, and Roger Sloan 11.
Dahmen won the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in March in the Dominican Republic for his first PGA Tour victory. That tournament also was played opposite a WGC event, the Dell Technologies Match Play.
Defending champion Richy Werensky’s eight points put him in contention.
When things go wrong, a player can end up with minus points and that’s where John Daly went. Daly’s 79 (eight-over par) put him dead-last in the field with minus 8 points.
