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FORT WORTH, Texas — Scottie Scheffler did one thing final weekend that he hardly ever does, watching a golf event at dwelling after lacking the minimize. The world’s No. 1 participant is again on the course, and tied atop a crowded leaderboard at Colonial.
Scheffler was amongst eight gamers who shot 4-under 66 on Thursday within the Charles Schwab Basic. However he was the one one in that group and not using a bogey, rebounding from his missed minimize on the PGA Championship.
Cam Davis, Beau Hossler, Chris Kirk, Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson, Nick Taylor and Harold Varner III additionally shot 66s. Seven others had been a shot again.
“The course is enjoying more durable than it does in a typical 12 months right here. Yeah, I felt like I did a very good job of managing myself across the golf course,” Scheffler mentioned. “Anytime you make no bogeys, it is going to be a great spherical.”
Colonial, the longest-running PGA Tour occasion on the identical venue since 1946, had by no means had greater than 5 gamers share the first-round lead. The eight are essentially the most on the PGA Tour since 9 shared the 18-hole lead within the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Nation Membership in 2011.
Scheffler, Reed, Simpson and Varner had been a part of the morning wave that began with nearly no wind and cooler circumstances. The wind picked up later of their rounds, gusting to 22 mph all through the afternoon.
Defending Colonial champion Jason Kokrak and Jordan Spieth, the 2016 winner who final 12 months turned a third-time runner-up, shot 69.
Many gamers wore ribbons pinned to their caps to indicate help for the group of Uvalde, Texas — about 350 miles south of the course — the place 19 college students and two academics had been killed in a taking pictures at an elementary college Tuesday.
Reed birdied all 4 par 3s at Colonial, together with a 64-foot shot from the greenside bunker into the cup on the 237-yard fourth gap. His solely bogey got here on his final gap, after lacking the green on the 400-yard dogleg proper ninth gap.
In his earlier 11 begins the previous 4 months, Reed missed 4 cuts and completed no higher than twenty sixth. He has slipped to thirty eighth within the World Golf Rating — he was ninth when at Colonial final 12 months.
“It feels good to get a quantity out of it,” Reed mentioned about his 66. “Truthfully, I really feel like there’s been too many days that I’ve performed a number of issues rather well, simply the quantity hasn’t actually mirrored it.”
Varner had 4 bogeys, countering these with six birdies and an eagle on the 634-yard eleventh gap — a 330-yard drive and 305-yard strategy to the inexperienced for a 5-foot putt. That was sandwiched by two birdies — a chip-in from 55-feet at No. 10, and a 10-foot putt at No. 12 — earlier than bogeys on two of the following three holes.
Bolstered by his eagle from 95 yards out on the par-4 twelfth, Taylor was at 5 underneath and within the lead alone till he completed with bogey at No. 18. The world’s 244th-ranked participant’s final drive of the day was approach proper.
Simpson adopted his solely bogeys, on each front-side par 3s, instantly with birdies. That included a closing 6½-foot birdie putt at No. 9 after his tee shot at No. 8 put him in a deep greenside bunker with solely his head and shoulders seen when blasting out of it.
“Apart from these two holes, it was actually stable,” Simpson mentioned. “That is the kind of Colonial that I like the place the tough is up and the wind is blowing.”
Hossler took his share of the lead with two eagle 2s his final 4 holes. He completed with one from 135 yards on the ninth, after holing a shot from 65 yards on the par-4 sixth. Each eagles instantly adopted bogeys.
Scheffler performed Thursday with PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas, the world’s No. 5 participant who had a 71.
Thomas gained the PGA in a three-hole combination playoff over Will Zalatoris, who had a gap 72 at Colonial. Zalatoris lives within the Dallas space like Scheffler and Spieth.
Mito Pereira shot an even-par 70 at Colonial, 4 days after he misplaced the PGA lead and missed the playoff with Thomas and Zalatoris due to a double-bogey on the 72nd gap at Southern Hills.
Scheffler did not formally decide to enjoying Colonial till after getting minimize in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the four-time winner’s first minimize since his season debut in October. He watched the remainder of the PGA Championship roughly 300 miles away from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“I sometimes do not ever watch golf, but it surely was good. I relaxed all day Saturday, and Sunday went out and practiced, simply put the event up on my cellphone and type of watched,” Scheffler mentioned. “Will was actually shut and J.T. is an efficient buddy of mine, as effectively, and my previous caddie was caddying for Mito. … I had a number of completely different guys I needed to observe, and it was enjoyable.”
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