One-hundred twenty-three players showed up Thursday at TPC Boston for the first round of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Eighty-one shot par or better.
The PGA Tour welcomed the fellas with a birdie-friendly course and the field responded. Who played well? Just about everyone. Who didn’t? That’s a much shorter list.
It was a perfect New England day and the scoring reflected it. By the end of the first round, four players were tied at 64 — seven-under — Harris English, Kevin Streelman, Cameron Davis and Russell Henley. Bubba Watson and Matthew Wolff were two of the seven at six-under. Sebastian Munoz was in there with them. He birdied his first seven holes of the day then played the last 11 in one-over par.
Tiger Woods shot 68, three-under but all that got him was a tie for 30th. Woods had a case of the “hot neck” on the practice range. He used some of the hot oil his trainer applies to his back but his neck didn’t like it. Woods had to apply an ice pack to cool it off. “I decided to put some up on my neck, and it’s not as tolerant as my lower back, so it gets awfully hot,” he said. “My lower back is pretty immune to it, but my neck is hot. It was hot.”
Who didn’t fare well?
PGA champ Collin Morikawa could do not better than even-par 71 and will have to play better on Friday to make the cut. Same for basher Bryson DeChambeau. DeChambeau boasted that he had “found something” to help him score better. But whatever it was, it didn’t show up on Thursday. His irons were off and he shot 71.
Tony Finau shot 72, Phil Mickelson stumbled to 74 and last week’s Wyndham winner — Jim Herman — had a victory hangover and shot a four-over par 75.
Shane Bertsch Leads At Big Cedar Lodge:
The Ozarks are home to the Champions Tour for the next two weeks and Shane Bertsch is the 36-hole leader in the first Schwab Series event at the resort created by Bass Pro Shops owner — billionaire John Luke Morris.
Bertsch has back-to-back 64s on the Buffalo Ridge course at Big Cedar Lodge and he take a four-shot lead into the final 36-holes.
Bernard Langer (68-64), Kenny Perry (67-65) and Wes Short Jr. (66-66) are all in a 10-under par.
