It’s a big ho-hum when you consider that Scott Piercy and Marcus Fraser are the first round leaders at the WGC Cadillac.
But when you take a look at who is right behind them, things get a lot more interesting.
Piercy was the hottest player out of the blocks Thursday at Doral. He was seven-under through his first 11 holes then started losing it coming home. He plugged his drive in the hazard left at the difficult 18th, finished with a bogey for a six-under 66.
Fraser finished late and he bogeyed his next-to-last hole to fall out of the solo lead and back into a tie with Piercy at 66.
A shot back of them is Phil Mickelson, who is really enthusiastic about how he’s playing. “I played really well,” Lefty said after his round. “I hit a lot of good shots today. I’m not gonna complain. I’m having so much fun controlling the ball. It’s really been fun.” Mickelson made a slight putting change, going to a claw grip on his putter for short putts. “I think it’s better for the short putts, on the long ones, I still am conventional.”
Last week’s winner, Adam Scott, still has his game intact. He opened with a four-under par 68. In at four-under with him are England’s Danny Willett, Charley Hoffman and the resurgent Jason Dufner.
So how did the big guns fare? They were not world-beaters.
No. 1 Jordan Spieth couldn’t get up-and-down from a greenside bunker at the par three ninth, his final hole of the day and the bogey left him at three-under 69. Jason Day was basically sleep-walking his way to an even par 72. McIlroy hit his final tee shot of the day into the water at the ninth and an ensuing double-bogey left him scratching his head after posting 71.
Four-five and six were bunched together. Bubba Watson shot 69, Rickie Fowler 70 and Henrik Stenson posted 71.
Top 10 disasters included a 76 by seventh-ranked Justin Rose and 77 by 10th-ranked Patrick Reed.
