Garcia, Akins work in concert with major aspirations

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Sergio Garcia rushed to the first tee and raced to the finish line Thursday in THE PLAYERS Championship. RELATED: Leaderboard | Mickelson sees positives at THE PLAYERS Most importantly, he avoided the kind of wreck that allowed TPC Sawgrass to live up to its reputation as the course where anything can happen to anyone at any time. Garcia thought he had plenty of time to get from the range to the 10th tee to start his round. The sun was in his eyes when he looked at the clock, he wasn’t sure what he saw, jogged the rest of the way and had a minute to spare. Then he fired off a 7-under 65, capped off by a birdie-birdie-eagle finish for a two-shot lead over Brian Harman. It was a solid day that became brilliant over the final three holes. Garcia only had to look next to him to see what kind of damage the Stadium Course inflicted, even on a pristine day of pleasant sunshine and a mild breeze. Rory McIlroy, the defending champion, opened with a double bogey from the trees. He hit two in the water on the 18th and made a quadruple-bogey 8. He wound up with a 79, his worst score since his opening round at Royal Portrush in the 2019 Open Championship. When darkness brought the first round to a halt — 21 players didn’t finish — there already were 13 scores of 80 or higher. That included Henrik Stenson with an 85, his highest score ever on the PGA TOUR. There were 22 scores of triple bogey or worse. Garcia took eight shots to play his final three holes. Byeong Hun An took 11 shots on the par-3 17th hole. The Spaniard feels comfortable on a course that causes anxiety even in good weather. “For some reason, it just kind of fits my eye,” said Garcia, who won THE PLAYERS in 2008 and has twice been runner-up. “I see what I want to do pretty much every hole, and then it’s a matter of doing it.” Harman played in the afternoon and was hanging around par until he began the back nine with three straight birdies, shot 31 on the back and wound up with a 67. The Open champion Shane Lowry took bogey on his final hole for a 68 and was tied with Corey Conners and Matt Fitzpatrick. Bryson DeChambeau, coming off his victory last week at Bay Hill, had to take a little off his driver on the par-5 16th and had 9-iron left, setting up a birdie-birdie-par finish to join the group at 69. The small number of fans — by Sawgrass standards — saw a little bit of everything. It started early with McIlroy, who shot 43 on his opening nine holes. “The big number on 18 didn’t help and then doubling the first wasn’t helpful, either,” he said. “It’s hard to recover when you just haven’t played good. If you take that 18th hole out, it still wasn’t a very good day.” Stenson hit into the water on consecutive holes for a double bogey and a triple bogey. He put two more in the water, including one of 18 balls in the water on the island-green 17th. Ian Poulter (77) sat for lunch with McIlroy, Stenson and Tyrrell Hatton (76) and posted video of this fearsome foursome that combined to go 29-over par. “Oh, what a bunch of muppets,” Poulter said. Rickie Fowler, the 2015 champion, had three double bogeys in his round of 77, leaving him in danger of missing the cut. Dustin Johnson took double bogey on the par-5 11th and eagle on the par-5 16th in his round of 73. Jordan Spieth missed only two fairways and had to settle for a 70. Garcia’s lone bogey came after perhaps his best shot. From the pine straw next to a tree left of the first fairway, he hooked an iron that came out low and right to left with enough run that it settled 25 feet away. And then he three-putted. The most remarkable round might have belonged to Hoge, who managed to get through 18 holes without a bogey. “It was a good, solid day, kind of what you want here on the Stadium Course,” Hoge said. “I haven’t been hitting it that well coming in here, so I just tried to hit a lot of greens and stay out of trouble for the most part.” Sebastian Munoz was at 4 under with one hole to play, that being the 18th, and a shot into the water led to a triple bogey for a 71. He tried to take out the positives of five birdies, and that’s what makes this tournament so tough to predict. There are plenty of birdies available. It doesn’t take much to erase all the good work. “You do have a lot of wedges in your hand,” Munoz said. “Par 5s are reachable. So yeah, we do have a lot more chances than a usual course. But I mean, danger is around the corner on every hole.”

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Dustin Johnson stepped to the 18th tee at TPC Twin Cities needing birdie to make the cut at the 3M Open late Friday afternoon. When he overcooked a cut with the driver and drowned his tee shot into the water that runs down the right side of the hole, so, too, went his chances to play this weekend. RELATED: Leaderboard | Dustin Johnson looks to find form at 3M Open Ranked No. 2 in the world behind Spain’s Jon Rahm, Johnson was the highest-ranked player in this week’s 3M field, and he had not missed a cut since May’s PGA Championship. He made bogey-6 and shot 1-over 72, finishing two rounds at level par, outside the cutline. “Yeah, just didn’t hit enough fairways on the back nine,” Johnson said afterward. “You know, tried to hang in there. The wind was blowing pretty hard. It played pretty tough.” But Johnson was far from alone in finding a difficult challenge awaiting at the finishing hole at TPC Twin Cities. Though his errant drive was the 24th tee shot to find the water, there many other ways to make a mess of the hole. Roger Sloan came to the 18th at 10 under par and alone in the lead early Friday afternoon, but his approach shot from 268 yards fell shy, tumbling into water fronting the green. He would make 6 and shoot 69. Chez Reavie, who got to 18 sharing the lead, made bogey after pulling his tee shot into a grassy native area down the left side, struggling to advance his second shot down the fairway. It was his lone blemish on the card as well. Usually, a closing par-5 hole represents an opportunity for the best players on the planet to don a bib and feast with eagles and birdies. Friday, the hole was just plain tricky. The 590-yard 18th had been the third easiest hole in the opening round; Friday, it was a real nuisance. It ranked 11th in difficulty. “I think the wind was just quartering a little bit, more cross when I hit,” Sloan said of his second shot on the hole. “I didn’t hit it great, but I thought it should still cover (and reach the green) … I don’t know, maybe just the wind isn’t where guys think it is. It’s a tough tee shot, too, so you’ve got to get the ball in play. It’s a great hole. What a great finishing hole – going to be a lot of drama on the weekend there.” Sloan, who will begin Saturday one shot behind leaders Adam Hadwin and Ryan Armour (both shot 65), tied with three others at 9-under 133, could use a quality weekend. He stands 147th in FedExCup points and needs to climb inside the top 125 in order to qualify for the Playoffs that start Aug. 19 with THE NORTHERN TRUST at Liberty National in New Jersey. He had reached the 18th tee having not made a single bogey through his first 35 holes of the 3M. While Sloan was disappointed with settling for bogey to finish, he actually took a small measure of relief from it, as well. “I didn’t really think about it until my caddie and I were walking off the green,” Sloan said. “He just said, ‘Well, we don’t have to worry about going bogey-free anymore,’ and it kind of loosens you up a little bit. So yeah, maybe donating a shot back there at the last could help us play a little bit more freely on the weekend.” Alas, Armour, who put together one of the day’s strongest rounds, matching the 65 that Hadwin already has posted, got to the 18th hole early Friday evening one shot out of the lead, played it as a three-shotter, and rolled in an 18-foot putt for birdie to tie for the tournament’s midway lead. Good to know at least one man at 3M walked off that final green with a smile.

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