Power Rankings: DJ leads field at Genesis Open

LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) — Rickie Fowler, playing in The American Express for the first time in six years, carded a 7-under 65 Thursday to sit one stroke off the lead shared by Zac Blair and Grayson Murray. “It’s a good start,” Fowler said. “Obviously you look at scores it’s usually pretty low out here, especially when you look at weather like this and the conditions of the courses. Conditions are perfect here at La Quinta. Greens are about the best that we see all year.” Fowler, Scottie Scheffler and Hank Lebioda shot 65. Fowler and Scheffler opened at La Quinta, while Lebioda played PGA West’s Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course. Murray and Blair shot 64 in sunny and mostly calm conditions. Grayson closed with a bogey on the par-4 ninth on PGA West’s Stadium Course, also the site of the final round in the pro-am event. “I’ve been here since Dec. 30 working on the game and I feel like I probably am the most prepared of the field for all three courses,” said Murray, the 2017 Barbasol Championship winner. “Coming off of a long offseason you never expect to come out the gates like I did firing, but I’m comfortable around all three of these courses. … I love it out here in the desert.” Blair had a bogey-free round at La Quinta Country Club. “It was perfect today, course was in really good shape,” Blair said. “Drove it really well, made some good putts. But it’s a little easier out here this week right now than it was in Hawaii last week, so it’s nice.” Phil Mickelson struggled off the tee in his first round of the year, shooting a 2-under 70 to fall six strokes behind Blair and Murray. “I didn’t score as I probably could have or wanted to, but I really had a good day,” said Mickelson, the 49-year-old Hall of Famer competing for the first time since early November. “It wasn’t quite as sharp as I wanted it to be, maybe a little bit rusty, but it was a good first day.” Related: Leaderboard | How Phil became a social media star | Q&A: Zac Blair Mickelson, also the tournament host, birdied the par-5 fifth and sixth holes to get to 3 under, then gave away two strokes on the par-4 eighth when he drove left into the water and hit his third left of the green. “I’ve been working on kind of a little low shot to get it in play and I hit it a few times today and I didn’t hit it as efficiently as I wanted to, but the miss wasn’t as bad as some of my other drives,” said Mickelson, the tournament winner in 2002 and 2004. Mickelson hit so far left on the par-4 ninth that he was in the rough on the far side of the adjacent first fairway. It wasn’t that bad of a shot, though, because he was trying to hit into the first fairway to give himself a better angle at the back right pin. “Takes the water out of play and I just have a much better angle,” Mickelson said. “I actually pushed it a little bit across and got a little bit unlucky to be behind the tree, but I ended up just chipping a little wedge underneath it and getting it on.” The Hall of Famer made a tap-in par there, and birdied the par-5 11th and 13th, holing out from the rough on 13 after failing to reach the green from a left bunker. He made bogey on the par-4 17th, missing a 7-footer after hitting left into a bunker. “I feel like I’m ready to go on a tear, like I’m excited to play,” Mickelson said. “Felt like 70 was the worst I could have shot, I’m going to come out tomorrow and get it going.” Playing partner Tony Finau shot 69. Mickelson and Finau will play the Nicklaus Tournament Course on Friday, then the adjacacent Stadium Course on Saturday. Defending champion Adam Long opened with a 69 at La Quinta.

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CROMWELL, Conn. – They settled into seats at the same table to share the same spotlight in a prelude to the same tournament, the Travelers Championship. Then again, that should not have felt out of the ordinary. After all, if it feels as if Matthew Wolff, Justin Suh, Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland have shared the amateur golf stage for years, it’s because they have. “It’s really cool to see us out here,â€� said Wolff. Nodding in agreement, Morikawa said, “I think it all brings us to the same point.â€� Related: Featured Groups | Hovland signs with Ping | Wolff brings unique swing to Travelers | What’s in Wolff’s bag? At a tournament that is heralded for the way in which it extends playing opportunities to up-and-coming players, the Travelers Championship outdid itself this year. Berths were extended to Oklahoma State teammates Hovland, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, and Wolff, the recent winner of the NCAA Championship; Suh, the University of Southern California standout who won eight collegiate tournaments; and the University of California’s Morikawa, who recently finished T-14 at the RBC Canadian Open in his pro debut. It will serve as the pro debut for Hovland, who has been low amateur in the Masters and U.S. Open this year, and Wolff, while Morikawa turned pro two weeks ago in Canada and Suh made his pro debut at the Memorial Tournament a few weeks ago. So, while these young stars – Morikawa is 22; Suh and Hovland are 21; Wolff is 20 – are toeing the starting line together as professionals, take note that they surely feel as if they’ve been racing together for years. In fact, Morikawa smiled when he looked out at the assembled audience and noticed Shari Wolff. He waved to Matthew’s mother. “It’s good to see his mom back there. Haven’t seen her since, I think Cabo (the Cabo Collegiate in Mexico) where she rode in a cart with us. That was a great week for us.â€� Listening to these four young men speak on the eve of the Travelers Championship, it sounds like there have been a lot of great weeks for them. In so many ways, the ways their paths have intersected provide great depth to their friendships. Suh, Morikawa and Wolff share California roots. Suh and Morikawa first met in local AJGA tournaments, while Morikawa (La Canada) and Wolff (Westlake) went to high schools north of Los Angeles that did not compete against one another in the same league, but served to introduce the players. Wolff recalled seeing Morikawa play for the first time, at North Ranch CC in Thousand Oaks. “He shot 70 and I think I shot 75 or 76,â€� said Wolff. “It was a hard day. I was just kind of blown away by it.â€� Morikawa remembers where he was when he heard that Suh, who hails from San Jose, had committed to USC. “We were in San Diego at an AJGA (tournament),â€� said Morikawa, smiling. “Just really cool to see us grow, even though we switched paths from southern California.â€� Which isn’t to say that Hovland doesn’t factor into the storyline, even though he was born and raised in Oslo, Norway. “Or California 2.0 as we call it,â€� laughed Hovland, whose infectious personality has captivated media members who met him at Augusta and last week at Pebble Beach. “The golf community is so small over there and when you do well and you think you’re big time, because everyone is talking about you.â€� Turns out, Hovland had the international observers talking about him, too. Wolff, for instance, remembers seeing this kid who wasn’t wearing a golf hat, “just Oakleys on, just a really European look,â€� he said, laughing. A few seats away, Hovland laughed, too. He remembered. “I met (Wolff) that week and figured out, ‘Wow, there is a bunch of good guys out here,â€� said Hovland. Morikawa was T3 in that AJGA Thunderbird tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., while Hovland was tied for seventh and Wolff joint 10th. They have plastered their names to the tops of collegiate and amateur leaderboards ever since, and none of them are entering this PGA TOUR phase devoid of confidence that it will continue. Asked if they’d be surprised if they won this week, they took turns and took different ways to share the same answer. No.

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