After long layoff, Van Pelt finally likes where his game is going

A quick look at the opening round of The Masters, where a firm and fast Augusta National bedeviled players. RELATED: Full leaderboard THE LEADERS Justin Rose (65): He was 2 over par for his first seven holes but played his next 10 holes in 9 under par, including an eagle at the par-5 eighth hole. Rose has had success at Augusta National – including two runner-up finishes – but this round was a bit unexpected. Not only was Augusta National playing difficult, but this was his first competitive round since he withdrew with an injury halfway through last month’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Rose entered this week ranked 164th in the FedExCup, with just two top-25s (and no top-10s) in seven starts this season. STORYLINES TOUGH STUFF: The patrons were back at Augusta National for the first time in two years but there weren’t many roars because birdies and eagles were tough to come by. Firm and fast conditions – and an inconsistent, swirling breeze – made things difficult for players. “(It) started off as a nice casual stroll around Augusta and turned into a roller coaster pretty quickly there on the back,” said Kevin Kisner, who shot 72. “It’s a super stressful grind is the best way to describe it.” WAKE UP: It was a good day for Wake Forest alums at Augusta National. Both Webb Simpson and Will Zalatoris shot 2-under 70. Simpson is one of just four players to finish in the top 10 in the past two Masters. Zalatoris, who’s one of just three professionals making his Masters debut this week, made eagle on 15. No Masters first-timer has won since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. PAIR OF ACES: Tommy Fleetwood made an ace on the 16th hole, giving him an ace in each of his last two tournaments. Fleetwood also made one in his Round of 16 match with Dylan Frittelli at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. NOTABLES JON RAHM (72) – Rahm didn’t arrive at Augusta National until Wednesday and hadn’t touched a club for several days after the birth of his first child, but he put together a solid opening round. Rahm has finished in the top 10 in the last three Masters, the second-longest active streak. “Even though I didn’t do much golf-related from Friday to Monday, the work is done before, right?” he said Thursday. “So I just need to come in here healthy, good mobility when it comes to the body, and then the right mindset.” DUSTIN JOHNSON (74) – The defending champion is trying to be the first player since Tiger Woods in 2001-02 to win back-to-back Masters. He made his defense more difficult, however, by playing his final three holes in 3 over, including a double-bogey on the 18th hole. BROOKS KOEPKA (74) – Walking Augusta National’s hills are difficult for Koepka after a recent surgery but he said he can still contend this week. He bogeyed four of the first five holes on the second nine but bounced back with birdies at Nos. 15 and 16. “It was fine,” Koepka said about his knee. “I just didn’t play good.” RORY McILROY (76) – McIlroy’s quest to complete the career Grand Slam may have to wait another year. The two-time FedExCup champion, who is in the midst of swing changes under new coach Pete Cowen, struggled Thursday. His approach shot on No. 7 even hit his father, Gerry. “I think any time you’re working on things with your swing, it’s going to feel very different, but it’s not as if I haven’t done these things before,” Rory said. “You get into these bad habits and that feels normal, and then you get it back into position where I’ve been a million times before and it just feels a little different, right.” WORTH WATCHNG BY THE NUMBERS 4 – This is the fourth time that Justin Rose has held the first-round lead at the Masters, tied with Jack Nicklaus for the most first-round leads in tournament history. Rose also held the Thursday lead here in 2008, 2007 and 2004. 4 – Rose’s four-shot lead matches the second-largest 18-hole lead in Masters history. Craig Wood led by five shots after the first round in 1941 before going on to win. 6 – Jordan Spieth made triple on Augusta National’s ninth hole, which features no water or out of bounds. It was just the sixth score of triple or worse made on that hole in the past decade.

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WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Webb Simpson shot a 9-under 61 for a one-stroke lead over Whee Kim after the first round of A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier on Thursday. Simpson posted his career-best score after shaking off a two-hour weather delay with six holes left in his round. Kim had back-to-back bogeys on the front nine on the Old White TPC, and then ran off five birdies over a seven-hole stretch. The South Korean had a career-high 10 birdies overall. Teenager Joaquin Niemann of Chile was another stroke back at 7-under 63 and Kelly Kraft was at 64. Phil Mickelson shot 66 in his first tournament since the U.S. Open, when he intentionally violated golf rules by hitting a moving ball on the 13th green in the third round. He later apologized.

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While tools of the trade typically take a back seat during major championship coverage, there were a number of interesting storylines at the 2019 PGA Championship when it came to equipment. In the recap below, we highlight those stories, including Jordan Spieth’s fairway wood switch, Dustin Johnson’s putter change, Ping club designer Marty Jertson, and Emiliano Grillo’s very rare decision. Swapping an 8-iron for a hybrid? You almost never see a golfer use an iron set that’s missing an 8-iron, unless you’re playing with a buddy who lost or broke it. For Emiliano Grillo, however, he purposely opted to leave his Callaway Apex MB 8-iron out of the bag for competition this week, instead substituting it for a Callaway Apex 2-hybrid. According to Callaway, he chose to use a hybrid instead of an 8-iron because he had a “specific carry number that he liked with the hybrid,� and he “liked how it performed in testing.� While the decision surely left Grillo with a few difficult shot-making decisions into the green with his mid irons, the move may have worked out since Grillo finished T23 on the week. Last minute putter changes In addition to Adam Scott’s putter switch for the week, there were two other putter changes that proved crucial. The PGA Championship’s runner-up, Dustin Johnson, who has shown in the past that he’s not afraid to test multiple putters and make last-minute putter changes, used a new TaylorMade Spider X putter with a “T� alignment aid on the crown of the putter this week. His flatstick was equipped with a SuperStroke Traxion Pistol GT 1.0 Tour grip. Luke List, who finished in 6th place at the PGA Championship, did so with a new Axis1 prototype putter that’s nearly identical to the putter that was designed for Justin Rose, who has been using that “Rose Proto� Axis1 throughout 2019. List finished 2nd in Strokes Gained: Putting on the week. Marty Jertson makes the cut using a driver he designed Jertson, who was one-of-three PGA Club Professionals to make the cut at Bethpage Black, is also the Vice President of Fitting and Performance at Ping. Previously at Ping, he’s also held job titles such as Director of Product Development and Senior Design Engineer. While his new role at company focuses more on fitting and optimizing clubs for better player performance, as his current job title implies, he was the lead designer of the G410 drivers. Of course, while competing in the 2019 PGA Championship, he was using a Ping G410 Plus driver (9 degrees), which was equipped with a Project X HZRDUS T1100 shaft. Koepka remains a free agent, and it’s paying off Although Brooks Koepka is certainly leaving big money on the table by not signing an equipment contract, he continues to justify his equipment free agency with major championship victories and huge winner’s checks. Currently, Koepka represents four different equipment companies in his bag setup: TaylorMade metalwoods, a Nike driving iron, Mizuno irons, and Titleist wedges, putter and golf ball. See his full winning setup here. Spieth switches out an old friend Jordan Spieth won the 2015 U.S. Open with a Titleist 915F fairway wood (15 degrees) in the bag, and while he has experimented with other Titleist fairway woods throughout the years, the 915F mostly remained in his competition setup ever since. That changed ahead of the 2019 PGA Championship, however. Spieth finished T3 this week using a Titleist TS2 (15 degrees) fairway wood, equipped with a Graphite Design Tour AD-DI 7X shaft. According to Titleist Tour rep Jim Curran, Spieth “loved the distance and overall ball flight that he was seeing.� A club that’s likely not to change anytime soon? His putter. Despite a rocky relationship with his putting over recent years, Spieth still has his Scotty Cameron 009 prototype putter in the bag, which he used to lead the 2019 PGA Championship field in Strokes Gained: Putting, gaining a whopping 10.6 strokes over the field – that’s more than three shots better than second place in that category for the week (List, with 7.2 strokes-gained). Spieth also made an astounding 394 feet, 4 inches worth of putts on the week. Check out our rundown of custom gear made specifically for the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black for more.

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