Biggest mover on moving day at the Tournament of Champions Saturday was 18-year veteran Ryan Palmer.
Palmer stood over a seven-foot eagle putt at the 18th hole of the Plantation course at Kapalua to take the solo lead but missed. The Texan still shot the best round of the week, a sizzling nine-under par 64 that earned him a piece of the 54-hole lead with Harris English.
Both players stand at an eye-rubbing 21-under par after English kept up his good, steady play and signed for a seven-under par 66. Collin Morikawa joined them in the “at-least” 20-under club as he finished with a 65 and was alone at 20-under par.
Daniel Berger was three behind the leaders after shooting 67 on another perfect day for scoring — no wind, wide fairways, perfect greens. Only way players could get in trouble was to hit really wayward drives. The knee and waist high native grasses lurk in some area.
Four shots back of the leaders were defending champion Justin Thomas and Sungjae Im. Thomas, the defending champion, once again had problems finding fairways. After making eagle at the par five fifth, J.T. found some of those unforgiving grasses and would end up with a double-bogey that proved a major setback. At that point he had to play catchup and he tried. By day’s end he got to five-under par (68) and will be chase mode again come Sunday.
What about numbers one and two in the world? Dustin Johnson had a lackluster day at best as did Jon Rahm. Both shot 69s, will start the final 18 seven shots off the pace, probably too far back to have a chance.
Last year Xander Schauffele came from five shots back to make the playoff but on Sunday, everything will depend on the winds. Will they show up or not.
Saturday did have some controversy.
With no fans to drown out noise, the television mics are picking up the players’ reactions to missed putts. A number of players have dropped a few “F-Bombs” but after missing a seven-footer for par at the fourth hole, J.T. gave it a homophobic slur and after his round, gave sincere apologies.
PGA Tour officials were waiting for Palmer after he finished. At the ninth hole, Palmer messed up a chip shot that started rolling back off the green, down the fairway. He was well away from the ball, no where near it’s path when he kicked a loose divot in disgust. Had it been in the path of the ball, he might have incurred a penalty but it wasn’t and as Palmer emphasized, “there was no intent, I was no where near where my ball was rolling and it stopped well in front of me, no where near me. There was no intent.”
Palmer is a member of the Players Policy Board.
As for Harris, he found some trouble at the closing hole when his four-iron second into the par five was pulled and ended up in the penalty area short of the green. A keen-eyed marshal found the ball and Harris was able to hack it out, onto the green but settled for a par rather than birdie at the very reachable par five.
As for the weather prediction, winds are supposed to pick up and blow around the 15 mile-per-hour mark in the afternoon when the lead groups are on the course.
 Goes Low, Catches Harris At TOC){kind=link}