Here’s what happened with Tiger & Co. while you were sleeping

JACKSON, Miss. — Davis Riley got off to a hot start and kept bogeys off his card to the end for a 6-under 66 and a share of the lead Thursday with Will Gordon in the Sanderson Farms Championship, the PGA TOUR event he considers his fifth major. Riley grew up about 90 miles away in Hattiesburg and can remember playing the Country Club of Jackson when he was so young he was hitting fairway metals into the par 4s. He is coming off a strong rookie season, narrowly missing out on the TOUR Championship, and would appear to be off to a solid start. Riley wonders if being so open about his affection for the PGA TOUR’s lone Mississippi stop has created too big of a burden. It wasn’t an issue Thursday. He saved par with an 8-foot putt on his first hole, handled the par 5s on the front nine and threw in a pair of 12-foot birdie putts. “I have so many friends and family here. I want to perform. It just would be a really, really special tournament to win,” Riley said. “I just have to take it day-by-day and treat it like every other tournament. It’s easy to put that added pressure on yourself, but I just think that hinders you from playing your best golf. “I’m going to take it day-by-day and continue the stress-free golf that I played today.” On the closing hole, Riley hit a cut from the rough to navigate a tree and came up just short of the green. He pitched to 6 feet and finished off a bogey-free round. Defending champion Sam Burns opened with a 70 one week after he was part of the U.S. Team that won the Presidents Cup. Gordon did most of his work late in the round. He two-putted for birdie from 20 feet on the par-5 14th, drove to the edge of the reachable par-4 15th for an easy up-and-down and made birdie on the 17th from about 12 feet. Riley and Gordon were a shot ahead of eight players, a group that included Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa, who went 1-0-1 in his Presidents Cup debut last week. Fatigue wasn’t too big of an issue from having only played two matches. It was the party Sunday night that about did him in, so Bezuidenhout took off on Monday and tried to carry some momentum into Mississippi. “You learn a lot playing against the best players in the world, and last week was most of the best players,” he said. “We faced a strong U.S. Team last week. Every week that you play against the best players in the world, you can play your game, and that’s the only way you’re going to get better.” Also at 67 was big-hitting rookie Brandon Matthews, who got married Saturday, and two other rookies in Trevor Cone and Kevin Yu. Mark Hubbard narrowly missed a 12-footer on his final hole at No. 9 that would have given him a share of the lead. Burns also played bogey-free, minus a bunch of birdies, none on the par 5s. He missed the fairway on three of the par 5s, and the one fairway he hit, he pulled his approach into a small bush-filled ravine. Burns hacked his way over the green, but at least saved par. The Sanderson Farms was a good start to his season a year ago. He went on to win twice more, in playoffs at the Valspar Championship over Riley and at Colonial over Scottie Scheffler, and he made his first Presidents Cup appearance. “Just couldn’t really get much going out there,” Burns said. “Golf course was playing pretty difficult, but overall not a bad round.”

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UPDATED THURSDAY, MARCH 10 (11 a.m. ET): After play was delayed one hour at the start of Round 1, play was suspended at 11 a.m. ET due to dangerous weather. Seventy-two players were able to get their rounds started. Will Zalatoris (11 holes), Harold Varner III (11 holes) and Tommy Fleetwood (10 holes) were tied for the lead at 4 under before the horn sounded. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9: PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – PGA TOUR officials are confident they’re prepared for what is shaping up as a potentially tricky stretch of weather at THE PLAYERS Championship. On the eve of the opening round at TPC Sawgrass the extended forecast calls for a high likelihood of thunderstorms over the opening three days. Perhaps more ominously, there could be four different wind directions throughout the tournament. As an ominous precursor, the Stadium Course was evacuated early Wednesday afternoon as storms approached the area. Saturday could prove especially challenging with 20-30 mph sustained winds, and even heavier gusts, expected out of the west/northwest. Thursday brings an 80% chance of storms and winds of 10-18 mph out of the west/southwest. The forecast for Friday sits at 90% chance of storms with an east/southeast wind of 6-12 mph. “Rain and thunderstorms are likely both Thursday and Friday as a frontal boundary drops into northern Florida and stalls,” TOUR meteorologist Wade Stettner said in his forecast Wednesday. “This front is forecast to bring periods of rain with embedded thunderstorms over the two-day period.” Temperatures are also expected to drop significantly on Sunday with a high of just 54 degrees. The wind will switch to a 12-22 mph challenge out of the north/northeast in what, weather depending, would be the final round. “By Saturday morning a strong cold front is forecast to arrive and bring additional thunderstorms,” Stettner’s forecast continued. “This front should clear Ponte Vedra Beach by noon Saturday with dry conditions for the remainder of the weekend. Gusty winds will develop behind the front on Saturday with peak gusts over 30mph at times. Much colder temperatures are forecast this weekend.” In anticipation of the high weekend winds, and the potential for weather delays over the opening two days, officials will pay especially close attention to green speeds and pin locations during the set-up process. With the natural drainage on and around the greens only a few pin locations would be severely affected by rain, but high winds could render some spots unusable. For example, it’s unlikely there would be a hole close to the water at the par-4 fourth and island 17th holes. “We will once again meet this afternoon with the agronomy staff with the latest information at our disposal and obviously adjust our plans accordingly,” Chief Referee Gary Young said. “We are confident we will be as prepared as possible for what lies ahead. We are meticulous in every aspect but it is certainly fair to say Saturday’s winds are a point of focus for us, particularly as we could be finishing up Friday’s round on Saturday, so that affects Friday’s set up as well. “We need to keep in mind we could have a good amount of Friday’s round playing in that Saturday wind,” Young continued, “and they are opposite winds, so we need to find something that works well for both and that’s a challenge.” While in perfect weather officials would prepare and maintain firm and fast greens, the current forecast calls for a gradual decrease from top speed – as the tournament begins Thursday – to as much as an inch or an inch and a half slower speeds by Saturday. That would presumably eliminate the possibility of balls oscillating and even rolling away on the putting surfaces. Officials will take care to make it a gradual change rather than a big overnight shift so players don’t have to make significant adjustments. “Thankfully we’ve got time to make adjustments because we know what’s coming, so that helps in the planning,” Young said. “We have our target speeds for the high winds and we just need to get to that as slowly as possible.” Defending champion Justin Thomas was hoping for the best but also preparing himself for the worst. “I’ve heard horror stories from Tiger and Freddy and some guys about having to hit 5- or 6-iron into 17 on those cold north wind days, and I haven’t experienced that,” Thomas said. “When you get wind and cold temperatures like that, it’s just a different animal, and it’s really just a survival-type thing. “It’s not like I’m going into this week preparing any differently… I don’t get too wrapped up in the draw or what’s the weather going to be like Friday or what’s the wind going to be, because at the end of the day, weather people are wrong all the time.” Adam Scott, the 2004 champion, has experienced tough weather at TPC Sawgrass before. THE PLAYERS the year prior to his victory here, and the tournament the year after it, were played in tricky weather. “It’s a long time ago, but I was around for Davis Love’s win in 2003 when it was horrible, and Fred Funk’s win in 2005, that wasn’t good weather either,” Scott said ahead of his 20th PLAYERS start. “I think we played almost 36 holes on Monday that year because of all the weather delays. When this sort of weather happens the guy who really has his game in shape comes to the top. He can make those adjustments on the fly when he stands on the tee and it is a different wind than the day before, but you just easily pick the shot you need to compensate. Those in control of their swings will be the ones to watch.”

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