Leaderboard: Reavie leads CJ Cup after Day 1

If we were to publish a guide to compile the levels of comfort for every host course on the PGA TOUR, Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, would be a finalist for its cover. There are many ways to define comfort, but all apply at the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. Whether it’s individual success, total appearances or the time it often requires to find form on the 81-year-old track, comfort exists everywhere you look. Monday’s Power Rankings detailed how age and familiarity have played co-protagonists since Sergio Garcia captured his first PGA TOUR victory here in 2001. Inherently correspondent to that theme, the average number of starts at Colonial before each of the 12 different champions in the last 14 years – Kenny Perry and Zach Johnson have won the tournament twice since 2002 – is 6.25. However, there’s been a gradual reduction in the average since ZJ’s first win here in 2010 as none of the last five unique champions made more than five starts prior to hoisting the hardware. Still, Colonial’s reputation as a comfortable place to unpack one’s bags is alive and well. Thirty-three of the 121 in the field (as of Monday) have made at least seven starts in the tournament. Eighteen have made as many as 10. For this is the leading factor in projecting success at the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. The course itself renders opportunity for all, evident in just how differently even just the last three champions navigated their paths to paydirt. TALES OF THE TAPE As maddening as it might be to discern any direction from the last three winners, not to mention how weather influences things, rest assured that there are reliable factors to locate value. While proper positioning off the tee never hurts anywhere, if you reviewed how contenders have rated in both distance and accuracy over the years at Colonial, you’d quickly learn that Chris Kirk’s uninspiring splits off the tee tilt toward a majority. In other words, Colonial is much more of a scorer’s paradise than it is the kind of test that’s going to reveal the broadest skill set. The set of identifiers below focuses on frequency and accuracy on approach as well as getting after it on the greens. And because there’s a correlation between recent winners and last year’s noisemakers, odd as it is, par-3 scoring is injected as a potential game-changer. Golfers in this week’s field inside the top 10 in the following categories in last year’s DEAN & DELUCA Invitational: * – Currently inside the top 50 on the PGA TOUR in the stat. (Golfers who haven’t logged enough rounds are not tagged.) Greens in Regulation Rank Golfer (Tournament Finish) 1 Kyle Reifers (5th) 2 Ricky Barnes (T42) T3 Jason Dufner (T6) T3 Harris English (2nd) T3 Ryan Palmer (T3) T3 Brandt Snedeker (T17) T9 Martin Piller (T6) Proximity to the Hole Rank Golfer (Tournament Finish) 1 Kyle Reifers (5th) 2 Ryan Palmer (T3) 3 *Jason Dufner (T6) 4 Brandt Snedeker (T17) 5 *Webb Simpson (T3) 7 *David Hearn (T17) 8 Harris English (2nd) 10 Anirban Lahiri (T6) Strokes Gained: Putting Rank Golfer (Tournament Finish) 1 Chris Stroud (T13) 2 Jordan Spieth (Win) 3 *Harris English (2nd) 4 Anirban Lahiri (T6) 5 Matt Kuchar (T6) 6 Kevin Kisner (T10) 8 *Seung-Yul Noh (T42) 9 Chad Campbell (T10) Putting: Birdie-or-Better Percentage Rank Golfer (Tournament Finish) 1 *Anirban Lahiri (T6) 2 Harris English (2nd) 3 Jason Bohn (T34) 4 Webb Simpson (T3) 5 *Jordan Spieth (Win) 7 Chad Campbell (T10) T8 Ryan Palmer (T3) T8 Martin Piller (T6) Par-3 Scoring Rank Golfer (Tournament Finish) T2 Tim Herron (T29) T2 Kevin Kisner (T10) T2 Matt Kuchar (T6) T2 *Johnson Wagner (T34) T6 Jason Dufner (T6) T6 Charley Hoffman (T42) T6 Zach Johnson (T17) T6 *Seung-Yul Noh (T42) T6 *Jordan Spieth (Win) T6 *Chris Stroud (T13) T6 Nick Taylor (T47) Relative to this space every week are how the three classifications below are populated. Each is at the mercy of sliding scales based on depth of field, individual records and other factors that include recency of success and current positioning on one career bell curve. Take these into account if you’re ever curious as to why a golfer slots in a grouping you wouldn’t expect. In addition, the only prerequisite for inclusion below is that any golfer must have recorded at least one top 10 on the host course of a given tournament. This explains why contemporary hopefuls like Marc Leishman (6-for-6 with no better than a T13 in 2016), David Hearn (5-for-6 with three top 25s but no better than a T13 in 2012) and Graham DeLaet (4-for-5 with no better than a T14 in 2014) are omitted. NOTE: The groups below are comprehensive to assist in data mining. Inclusion doesn’t imply endorsement in any fantasy game. HORSES FOR COURSES Selected golfers with multiple cuts made sorted by rank on the tournament’s money list. GETTING COMFY Sorted by best finish, selected golfers who are either finally finding form on the course or are still relatively new to the tournament but have enjoyed some success. OTHER SIGNS OF COMFORT Sorted by most recent top 10s, selected golfers for whom it’s been a few years since their last.

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To say Julie Blum has worked in some non-traditional jobs in her life would be an understatement. In college in the late 1980s, she was a disc jockey in some of the most popular nightclubs on Sixth Street in Austin, Texas. She'd work happy hours and sometimes on weekends, expertly sizing up the crowd to see whether to play rock and roll or techno music or country and western that night. Later, Blum's proficiency in Spanish - as well as Italian, Dutch and even a little Russian - brought her to the city of Houston's protocol department where she worked in the aviation arena. She'd meet with security personnel and help dignitaries like Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the Soviet Union, navigate the airport landscape after their planes touched down. And she has spent the last 25 years at Memorial Park golf course, starting out as an administrative assistant and working her way up seven years ago to become the general manager of the facility that will host the Vivint Houston Open for the first time since 1963 this week. As she walked toward her office for a telephone interview on Tuesday, Blum passed Phil Mickelson, who was preparing to tee off in a practice round. She'd seen Jason Day working on his short game for hours. She calls the experience of hosting the PGA TOUR's best players at Houston's municipal gem somewhat surreal. "When I saw all this come to light … the signage, the ropes, the tents, watching the sun rise and seeing all these people working, it’s just been unbelievable to me that this is Memorial," Blum says. "Like how really the dream came true, and what a gift for our Houstonians. "We’re so lucky that we can play this course that the pros play." Truth be told, though, Blum wasn't quite sure what she was getting herself into when she started working at Memorial. She had left the aviation department by then and was the assistant to Houston's director of purchasing, dealing with the city council and the mayor and learning the internal workings of the largest city in Texas. Then she fell in love with her boss' son, Brian Blum, the man she would later marry. Obviously, Blum needed to make a job change given potential nepotism and favoritism concerns given that relationship. Her soon-to-be father-in-law told her there was an opening at Memorial Park for an administrative assistant and suggested she apply. "So, I came to this place in 1995 and it was under renovation," Blum recalls. "It was kind of comical because I showed up in my business attire, which at the time was a suit and high heels. Well. this was a mud pit, and my heels kept getting stuck in the mud. I’m like, what kind of place is this?" During that first push to improve the property, Blum met Nancy Reynolds, a member of the Houston Parks Board who, along with Mayor Bob Lanier, spearheaded the push to upgrade the municipal golf course that is located in the heart of Houston near the Galleria shopping complex and downtown. "She was definitely my inspiration to stay here at Memorial and to fill her wish that this would be a place for definitely keeping our seniors happy and developing the game of golf by making sure our juniors are interested," Blum says. "That was always her goal is to make sure we promote the game of golf. So that was her wish. And I promised her that I would take care of this place for her as long as I was here." Reynolds likely has heard about a young boy named Brian who asked Blum for free range balls one day after school. She put him to work vacuuming the pro shop and doing other odd jobs. He grew up to be a lawyer, invited Blum to his wedding and now brings his three sons to play at Memorial. Blum, who calls herself a recreational golfer, learned about Memorial Park from the ground up - literally - and that helped her gain the respect of the people with whom she works. She helped the maintenance crew edge cart paths and lay sod. She's worked the driving range, rolled greens and figured out how to drive the golf ball picker and maneuver a Skid Steer. And Blum's boss, Jason Harsh, who has a degree in agronomy from Texas A&M has also shared his expertise with the Chicago native and University of Houston grad whose first love was geology. The two, who have worked together for more than two decades, talk chemical compounds, fairy rings, web worms and the merits of Arkansas sand versus river sand, among other things. "So that’s how I learned so much in the past 25 years about golf course maintenance," says Blum, whose hands-on experience also helped her understand the tools her staff needs to do its jobs. She calls grounds crew the unsung heroes of Memorial Park, particularly after the recently completed second renovation, this time done by renowned golf course architect Tom Doak, that brought the layout up to the standard a PGA TOUR event requires. The long hours and hard work will be showcased this week. "Without them we wouldn’t be anything," she says. "So, if there’s anything I want to get out of this conversation is our maintenance guys … doing these jobs in a hundred degrees and this morning it was 46 — hats off to those guys and girls." The eight-month renovation, of course, wouldn't have been possible without the support of the Astros Golf Foundation, which stepped in two years ago to rescue the Vivint Houston Open. Memorial Park, which hosted the tournament from 1951 to 1963, is now PGA TOUR ready again. "To me, it’s just unbelievable to see the metamorphosis, the change going from a local neighborhood, kind of like a "Cheers" bar where everybody knows your name," Blum says "And now … I was watching Jason Day and Phil Mickelson was on the other tee box. "So to me, our values are not going to change. We’re still going to treat everyone with kindness and great communication and encourage development. And we want our locals, but we also want to just maintain that PGA flair that we’ve been gifted. "And we’re very lucky to have the Astros Golf Foundation in our life and great partners." Astros owner Jim Crane appears to feel the same about Blum and her stewardship of Memorial Park. "The other day, Mr. Crane looked at me and he goes, well, Julie, how does it feel to be the CEO of this asset?" Blum recalls. "And I looked at him and I’m like, okay, I never really thought of it that way, but now you just made me a little nervous." While she is more comfortable staying in the background, Blum thinks it's important for women to support each other - "we have to at least let women know that we can do anything," she says. That fact was driven home recently when a PGA TOUR staffer stopped by her office. "She looked at me, she was like, you don’t see this," Blum says. "And I was like trying to see what she was pointing at. And she was like pointing at me and I’m like, I don’t know what you mean. I'm sorry. She goes, you don’t see this — a woman behind the desk. "And she goes, I’ve been to Thailand, I’ve been to California, everywhere, Australia. You don’t see this. And she said hats off to you."

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Round 2 of the THE CJ CUP in South Carolina takes place Friday from Congaree Golf Club. Gary Woodland and Trey Mullinax share the lead at 6-under par. Here’s everything you need to follow the action. Tee times Leaderboard HOW TO FOLLOW: Television: Thursday-Sunday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET. Radio: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m. ET. Saturday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. ET. Sunday 12 p.m.-5:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) FEATURED GROUPS FRIDAY Tom Kim/Rory McIlroy/Rickie Fowler Justin Thomas/Jon Rahm/Keegan Bradley MUST READS For Rory McIlroy, chasing No. 1 again, it’s time to ‘go’ The backstory on Tom Kim’s ultra-custom putter Gary Woodland, Trey Mullinax share lead at THE CJ CUP Five Things to Know: Congaree Golf Club

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