Jason Day fires an opening salvo with a course record tying 63. But he is certainly not lapping the field, as there are a LOT of golfers posting 65 and 66, including Justin Rose and Brooks Koepka respectively.
Rickie Fowler is doing his best to ignore the hot weather by wearing all black with bright yellow and pink shoes. So even if he doesn't go low, you'll still remember what he wore, because we all know it's more important to look good, rather than playing good.
watching it on PGA Tour live right now. conditions look ideal.
They predicted on Live at the Players yesterday that the players would eat up the course today with the conditions and weather. Even suggested we could see a course record.....which so far has been tied.
Would you wear Rickie's shoes that everyone was talking about?
Will Wilcox for the first ace in 6,300 tee shots on #17 today. To say he was excited might be understating it. With a yellow ball no less.
My Gramps had a pair of work boots that looked similar to that in his paint shop.
blech
Nice to see Rory awaken from his slumber today and throw up a challenge to Jason heading into the weekend. Not sure what went on yesterday, he said that his round today didn't feel all that dissimilar to his round yesterday... but the score sure as hell indicates otherwise.
And Day continues to show up in the big events, setting the bar for everyone else to chase. There hasn't been a more dominant golfer the past two seasons, every aspect of his game seems to be up to the challenge, no letup in sight. You put him on a short course, light rough, perfect greens, brimming with confidence... hard to picture him not having another major on his trophy mantle this year.
It's likewise hard to believe that Mickelson has led the tour in scoring average much of this season, at least based on his play the past month or so. Phil had it to 5-under early on today, well within the cutline and really not out of it whatsoever. Then came the horrendous 3-hole stretch on holes 6 thru 8 where he plays them +4... then throws a couple more careless bogeys in for good measure on the back, and suddenly he finds himself having to birdie either 17 or 18 just to get in for the weekend. It's not uncommon to see the top players bounce back with birdies after a bad hole, but Phil is just the opposite... makes birdie, then throws it away within the next 15 minutes of play. Some of the mistakes he's made the past few tournaments have just been downright horrible, more befitting a weekend club player.
And Jordan... not sure anyone caught the conversation he had early on today, where he came up short with wedge on one of the shorter par4's. No sooner than he hit the ball, "that's not enough club, dude. Not even close to the right club. What are we doing here?" The player-caddie honeymoon is officially over, at least judging by the reaction today.
Spieth is a good kid, he'll put the Masters debacle behind him soon enough and find his stride again. But it's interesting to see just how obsessive-compulsive his behavior has gotten over the past few months, when things suddenly don't go his way. He has this nervousness about him that almost begs for the uncertainty that awaits.
Best highlight of the day to Will Wilcox with the epic reaction to the hole-in-one on the 17th. He joked in the interview afterward that he's already getting some grief over his home-made golf swing on social media, and delivered the best response of the day to summarize. "Don't like it - watch another sport or something." Boom. I like it.
PA-PLAYA Spieth is now a headcase with major mental issues. I believe that his quick rise in fame has gotten the better of him right now, and you are easily seeing the difference between winning championships and barely competing. The margin is razor thin. Until he returns to some of his humility, he'll continue to struggle. Some of the commentary between him and Grellar yesterday that was picked up by NBC was quite interesting. I heard him blame Grellar outright for a misclub. What happened to "we"? Again, mental issues that he needs to get over before he's in the hunt again.
Russell Knox is making me feel better about the round I shot today in our club tournament.
I wonder if Day will pass the doping test. Ah, I forgot that he is under medical care for vertigo condition.
He just look wired at the trophy ceremony.
Perhaps screwing off like 12 year olds in the Bahamas for "Spring Break" is not such a good idea for professional golfers in honing their tournament level play?
The story last week was the horrendous decision to allow the blades to be lowered on the greens. Day played fabulous golf, adjusted better than everyone else when he was on the greens. But changing the level of difficulty to such an extreme level all but guaranteed that the Sunday finish wasn't going to hold very much interest.
Day is clearly ahead of everyone else at the moment, and would've likely won regardless of how fast the greens were rolling. But the extreme nature of the changes basically took the excitement factor away, making this a one-horse race, as no one was going to catch Jason in that situation.
The weekend setup was a gaffe of such an epic proportion that this event basically became unwatchable. And that's unfortunate, because it has been a very exciting tournament the past several years.
