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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tommy Fleetwood narrowly certified for the Gamers Championship after which endured an extended, moist begin on the TPC Sawgrass with a 6-under 66 to share the early lead with Pebble Seaside winner Tom Hoge.
The place that leaves them after the opening spherical may take time to find out.
The PGA Tour loved splendid climate with no delays for 9 weeks in 4 states throughout 5 time zones to start out the 12 months. After which for its premier championship, it barely acquired began.
Greater than an inch of in a single day rain delayed the beginning by an hour. Storms within the space resulted in one other delay of greater than 4 hours.
Fleetwood, a Ryder Cup star in Paris in 2018 who has gone two years since his final victory, returned from the lengthy delay to finish a string of three straight birdies across the flip after which stored his spherical along with two large putts, one for par and one other for birdie.
Hoge had an eagle on the par-5 second gap, his eleventh of the spherical, and shot 31 on the entrance 9 to affix him within the clubhouse at 66.
Keith Mitchell was poised to affix the till his strategy to the 18th was proper of the flag and landed on the slope of gnarly tough within the mounds, and he failed to avoid wasting par. He was at 67, together with Riviera winner Joaquin Niemann, Anirban Lahiri and Kramer Hickok.
The stop-and-start nature won’t be over.
The forecast known as for a barely decrease likelihood of rain Friday — 99% as an alternative of 100% — and there was an opportunity those that completed the spherical won’t see the course once more till Saturday.
Six gamers from the early aspect of the draw didn’t end, that means they return at 7:15 a.m. Friday to play one or two holes earlier than getting the remainder of the time without work. Twelve gamers by no means even hit a tee shot.
Ian Poulter can relaxation simple, even when it takes time for his coronary heart price to regular. The 46-year-old may sense the horn about to sound to droop play for darkness. By rule, gamers can end the opening that anybody within the group has began.
Poulter was on the tee on the par-3 seventeenth, the island inexperienced with a again pin and tender greens, when he fired his shot and barely noticed it land 4 ft from the cup. He jogged all the way in which to the inexperienced, holed the birdie putt, ran by the tunnel beneath the bleachers and onto the 18th tee. He hit his tee shot because the group in entrance cleared out of the way in which from the golf green.
He did the identical factor 11 years in the past.
Even with solely 66 gamers finishing the spherical, that was sufficient time for the Stadium Course to offer its share of thrills and spills, largely the latter.
Harold Varner III, needing good outcomes to remain within the prime 50 and make his win in Saudi Arabia repay with a visit to the Masters, had a two-shot lead when he stepped to the seventeenth tee. His shot spun sharply down the slope, throughout the sunshine reduce of tough and into the water. His subsequent shot from the drop zone almost did the identical. He made triple bogey, dropped one other shot on the 18th and shot 69.
“Simply was in between golf equipment and did not execute the shot, and that is what you get so much out right here,” Varner mentioned.
Amazingly, that was the one ball within the water out of 69 tee pictures.
No want telling that to Adam Scott. The previous Gamers champion pumped two tee pictures into the water off the 18th tee and took a quadruple bogey on his method to a 78.
Fleetwood has purpose to be glad simply to have a tee time. He missed the reduce on the Honda Traditional and narrowly stayed inside the highest 50, one of many criterium for the Gamers.
For probably the most half, it was secure and regular play, removed from excellent although Sawgrass hardly ever calls for that. He was 6 below by 14 holes when he hit a wild drive into the pine straw to the precise of the sixth fairway, resulting in bogey.
He was even additional to the precise on the seventh, however an excellent save from behind the inexperienced stored him from dropping one other shot, after which he holed a 25-foot birdie on the par-3 eighth.
“I am satisfied to be in on that rating,” Fleetwood mentioned. “I felt like I drove the ball properly other than a pair, and I felt like I chipped and putted nice. For positive, that was probably the most I may have gotten out of the spherical. So days like which are very, very pleasing.”
Lengthy. Moist. However pleasing.
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