Bronson Burgoon leads CIMB Classic after Round 1

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Matt Every, Scott Brown, Stuart Cink and Sebastian Munoz each shot 6-under 64s on Thursday to share the lead after one round at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. Charl Schwartzel and Matt Jones were each one stroke back at the final tuneup before the U.S. Open. Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen and Chez Reavie each shot a 66 on the par-70 TPC Southwind course. The 33-year-old Every has two wins on the PGA TOUR, but none since 2014. He’s only made two cuts this year and hasn’t finished better than a tie for 62nd at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard in March. “I haven’t played real well in a couple years, and I’ve been out here for like seven or eight, so I kind of know the drill,” Every said. “Like one round is not that big a deal. It is nice to play well, but yeah, they don’t hand out trophies after the first round.” Every had four birdies during his round and an eagle on the par-5 16th, sticking his second shot about 10 feet from the flagstick before sinking the putt. He closed his round by making a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th. “Middle of the round got a little away from me, but I saved some shots and I haven’t been doing that lately,” Every said. “Then I played pretty solid the last few holes. So it was just a good day. I was kind of due for one.” Cink, Brown and Munoz joined him by making afternoon charges up the leaderboard. “I’ve been striking it nicely now for a few months and just the putter’s kind of been a little inconsistent,” Brown said. “Hot some days, cold some days. … If I can keep the putter rolling, should be kind of in the mix for the week.” Cink, a 44-year-old, six-time winner on TOUR and 2009 Open Championship winner, birdied three straight holes late in his round, including one from about 10 feet on the par-4 5th. He bogeyed the next hole, then closed his round with a birdie on No. 9 to catch Brown and Every. “The key to my round today was the key to anyone’s round who plays well here and that is you’ve got to keep the ball in front of you,” Cink said. “Meaning, you don’t have to hit every fairway, but you can’t really be off too much.” Munoz, a 24-year-old, third-year pro from Colombia who’s chasing his first victory on TOUR, was bogey-free during the best round of his career. He had six birdies, including two in a row on Nos. 15-16. DIVOTS: Billy Horschel used a fairway wood to putt on his final hole after he broke his putter a hole earlier. After missing a 2-foot putt on No. 8, he flipped his putter in the air and the head snapped off when it struck the ground. According to PGA rules, he wasn’t allowed to use a new putter because it didn’t break during the course of play. He finished with a 72.

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The first word was “sadness.” Minutes after signing his scorecard, Collin Morikawa was blunt in assessing his final round at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, in what he described as the most disappointing experience of his career. Morikawa began Sunday at the Plantation Course at Kapalua six strokes clear of the field at the PGA TOUR’s first event of 2023. He made three birdies in his first six holes Sunday, and he was bogey-free for the event’s first 67 holes. He looked unflappable. Until he was undone by three consecutive bogeys on Nos. 14-16, missing par putts of 10, 8 and 7 feet respectively. Morikawa carded a final-round, 1-under 72 to finish solo second at 25-under total, two short of Jon Rahm, who capitalized on Morikawa’s mishaps with a final-round, 10-under 63 that included a 5-under stretch on Nos. 12-15 Sunday. “It sucks,” Morikawa said. “You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities, and just bad timing on bad shots, and kind of added up really quickly. Don’t know what I’m going to learn this week, but it doesn’t seem like it was that far off. It really wasn’t. “Yeah, it sucks.” Morikawa hasn’t won on TOUR since The Open in July 2021; this marks his third runner-up finish since then. He arrived at serene Kapalua inspired by recent work with new putting coach Stephen Sweeney, and the stats backed it up, as he averaged nearly two strokes gained on the greens across the first three rounds. Sunday was a different story, though, as Morikawa missed birdie putts of 3 and 7 feet on the fifth and ninth holes respectively. His lead was in the five- to seven-stroke range for most of the day, but he couldn’t quite push the margin to the point of insurmountable. The bogeys came, and Rahm took advantage. The first bogey was perhaps the most agonizing. After finding a front greenside bunker at the 284-yard, par-4 14th hole, Morikawa missed the green long on his second shot. He chipped to 10 feet and could not convert the par putt. That’s the point when he started to feel like he might be losing control of the situation, he said. “I’ve been in that bunker; it’s not like it’s an impossible bunker shot,” Morikawa said. “Normally 10 out of 10 times, you’re putting it to within 15 feet at worst. I caught it thin. “Everything felt fine. You make a bogey there on 14, you’re like, ‘OK, you’ve got 15, you’ve got 18, we’re still in it, we’re still right there. No problem. “Then 15, just pushed the 5-wood just enough and knew it was going to roll down. Practiced that chip a bunch too, and obviously not enough.” Despite the Sunday stumble, Morikawa remains upbeat about the spring ahead. He’ll stay in Hawaii for a quick vacation, then return to the TOUR for the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines later this month. He plans to play the WM Phoenix Open and The Genesis Invitational, as well. It wasn’t the preferred result this time, but each week in contention represents a valuable learning experience. Morikawa sees better days – and additions to his five TOUR titles – just around the corner. “I can finally say it’s not back to the drawing board after this week,” Morikawa said. “It’s really just figure out the small little things. My game hasn’t felt like that in a very long time; I saw little specs of it throughout the fall season and was never able to put four rounds together. We’re still getting there, but for me, I know there’s still a lot of work to do. Obviously it shows today, but I’m willing to put in the work. “I think at this point now, it’s just kind of going to hopefully just push me more and more to really figure out what it’s going to take for 72 holes.”

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Jon Rahm is on an absolute tear heading into The Open Championship. He’s 44 under par in his last 12 worldwide rounds. He is making birdie-or-better on more than 30% of his holes in that stretch. He’s never been worse than T11 after any round in that span. He not only won his first major championship at the U.S. Open but was one stroke of bad fortune from running away with the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, as well. RELATED LINKS: Twenty First Group | Nine Things to Know: Royal St. George’s Couple that with his past success at links-style golf courses in Europe, and you justifiably have a player who will be at the top of virtually everyone’s lists heading into the 149th Open Championship. Rahm is a two-time winner of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, with high finishes dotting his resume on similar courses throughout his young career. “It’s very refreshing when we come to this part of the world and play,” Rahm said last week at the Scottish Open, where he finished seventh. “And I think that’s why I’ve had success.” Twenty First Group analyzed every European Tour event (including The Open Championship) played on coastal courses of the British Isles since 2010, a collection of more than 25,000 rounds. Digging through the results not only articulated how great Rahm has been on links-style courses, but pinpointed some other key performers. Some names were expected. Some might be a bit surprising. Jon Rahm In his career, Rahm has averaged +1.8 Strokes Gained: Total per round on links-style golf courses (as defined in our classification), the best of any player over the last decade with 30 or more rounds played. Rahm’s iron play has been exceptional: in 33 rounds, he’s hit 72.6% of his greens in regulation – 6.6% more than the combined field averages in that span. Rahm has been able to capitalize on his length everywhere in his career, and these types of courses are no different. On links courses, the World No. 2 averages more than 10 yards farther than the field off the tee. It’s led to a direct benefit on par-5s – he’s gained an average of +0.28 strokes per par-5 played, second-best of any player since 2010 with 30 or more rounds under his belt. Since the first Masters was held in 1934, only three players have won their first two professional majors in back-to-back major starts: Craig Wood (1941 Masters, U.S. Open); Bobby Locke (1949 and 1950 Open Championships); and Jordan Speith (2015 Masters, U.S. Open). Rahm will try to join that list this week, as well as become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2000 to win the U.S. Open and The Open Championship in the same season. Rahm also is trying to finish in the top 10 in all four of this year’s majors. In addition to his win at Torrey Pines, he has finished fifth at this year’s Masters and T8 at the PGA Championship. Jordan Spieth He finished one shot out of a playoff at St. Andrews in 2015, then won The Open Championship two years later. Jordan Spieth’s links acumen is obvious, but the numbers paint a fuller picture of how good he’s been after crossing the Atlantic. In 28 rounds, he’s averaged a whopping +2.0 Strokes Gained: Total per round, the best of any player since 2010 with 20 or more rounds played. Spieth’s short game has been especially brilliant: he has scrambled, on average, 10.4% better than his opposition when playing links courses in his career. He’s also averaged more than half-a-putt fewer per round than the competition. This has led to him gaining strokes on the opposition regardless of hole type, doing so on par-3s, par-4s and par-5s. Since 2015, Spieth leads all players at The Open Championship in scoring average (69.6), rounds in the 60s (12) and one-putts (145). Tony Finau Quick. Who was the low American at the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush? It wasn’t Brooks Koepka (T4). It was Finau, who finished alone in third place. Finau is the only player to finish in the top 10 at both the 2018 and 2019 Open Championship. Finau has been good-to-great at virtually everything on links-style golf courses in his career. His driving distance, always a weapon, has given him a 12.6 yard average head start on the field. He’s hit more than 71% of his greens in regulation, a 7.2% increase over the field average. He also scrambles at a clip 8.5% higher than the field and has fewer putts per round than the average player, too. Finau has averaged 1.5 strokes under par per round on links courses, an exceptional clip considering more than half of his sample is coming from The Open Championship. Adam Scott With seven top-25 finishes since 2011, Adam Scott has been one of the most consistent performers this decade at The Open Championship. On links-style courses since 2010, Scott has averaged +1.7 Strokes Gained: Total per round, third-best among players with 40 or more rounds played in that span. Scott has been able to take great advantage of par-5s throughout his career on these courses: on average, Scott gains 0.3 strokes on the field per par-5 played, the highest average of any player in this study with more than 20 rounds. Outdriving the field average by more than 16 yards goes a long way, in turns out. Xander Schauffele Since 2010, there are just six players who have hit at least 5% more greens than the field and scrambled at a clip that is at least 5% better than the competition on European links courses. Two of those players have already been mentioned: Finau and Scott. Another one on that short list is Schauffele, who was the 54-hole co-leader at Carnoustie three years ago before ultimately finishing T2. It’s not an enormous sample size, but Schauffele has been terrific on these types of courses, gaining +1.8 strokes on the field per round. In addition to the scrambling and G.I.R. prowess we mentioned, he also averages more than six-tenths of a putt fewer per round, a number that puts him in the upper-15th percentile in that statistic. Schauffele has played in 17 major championships in his young career, finishing in the top 10 in more than half of them (nine). Since 2017, he is ranked fourth or better in the majors in scoring (70.6), birdies-or-better per round (3.8) and percentage of rounds in the 60s (39.1%). Could Royal St George’s be the site of his breakthrough major win?

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