Live leaderboard: Round 2 of Greenbrier Classic

NORTON, Mass. – Mother Nature had provided a gentle forecast – crisp, fall-like weather, temperatures reaching the low 70s – but being a veteran of 37 PGA TOUR seasons, Mark Russell suspected some turbulence would accompany Friday’s first round of the Dell Technologies Championship. There had been a drastic change to the par-4 12th at TPC Boston and Russell, vice president of rules, competition and administration for the PGA TOUR, had caught wind of player discontent. Some of it was loud, much of it animated, but all of it was met with Russell’s unmatched sense of calm. “Let’s just play four rounds of golf and see what we have,â€� Russell said. Well, after just one day, we have definitive proof that architect Gil Hanse has provided a much tougher 12th hole. When the day was done, the field average was 4.453; in the previous 14 years of this tournament, the average there was 4.064. Just three birdies were made in Round 1, as opposed to years 2003-16 when an average of 14.98 were made per round. And when it came to rank, No. 12 was the toughest hole Friday, compared to being on average 7.5 in past years. It’s just one-quarter of the way through the tournament, of course, and both Russell and Hanse have asked for a bigger pool of data. Players being players, however, many have already decided they don’t like the change. “It was one of the better holes. You don’t need to change it,â€� said Justin Thomas, who seemed to have support from other vocal peers. Yet, heeding Russell’s call for a fair sample, Marc Leishman simply shrugged. He had to make a ticklish 5-footer to save par, but so be it. “I don’t really get into all that stuff,â€� the Aussie said of the controversy after his round of 4-under 67. “I just play what we’re given. That’s what we’ve been given this week, so just play on it and do as good as I can.â€� In years past, No. 12 was roughly a 465-yard hole with a green tucked in behind an environmentally friendly hazard. True, it yielded its share of double-bogeys or higher (3.51 per round between 2003-16) and there were seven made Friday, but mostly the biggest change thus far is in the lack of scoring opportunities. Kevin Na made the only morning birdie, from 29 feet, while Grayson Murray (18 feet) and Kevin Kisner (12) converted splendid approaches in the afternoon. A miserly 25.26 percent of the field found the green in regulation. Indeed, it wasn’t the 12th that players had come to know, although Leishman seemed to understand the change. “In the past, it has been more (like) driver, wedge, or driver, 9-iron. But now, you’re going to be hitting longer irons in there.â€� But more than length (and while it can stretch to a 511-yard par 4, Friday it played at around 490), the new 12th features a bunker down the left that requires a 256-yard carry, and a big “Principal’s Noseâ€� bunker down the right that can be reached at 305 yards. Since at approximately 300 yards the fairway slopes steeply downward, the play is to carry the left bunker but hit your drive up on the plateau. Therein lies one of the problems — players conceded they hadn’t yet figured out the hole and so decisions were all over the map. Adam Scott hit 3-wood, 7-iron and made par; Gary Woodland hit 2-iron, 4-iron, made bogey and seemed to admit he was confounded; Louis Oosthuizen hit 4-wood, 4-iron and made bogey by missing the green short; and Thomas stayed with a game plan to hit a big, high sweeping draw into the 13th fairway, from where he still had a 190-yard second shot. He made par but said, “I still don’t like the hole.â€� Colleagues who might have agreed with Thomas weren’t about to adopt his game plan, however. Not when the penalty for not hitting a big, high sweeping drive was trouble with trees and then a possible second shot up and over more trees. And not when quality players such as Scott (3-wood, 201-yard approach, two putts from 50 feet), Rory McIlroy (3-wood, 214-yard approach, two putts from 12 feet), and Dustin Johnson (3-wood, 6-iron, two putts from 60 feet) showed that the hole wasn’t impossible. Hanse was on-site Thursday and faced the players. So often they have sung his praises, but this time there is criticism. Like a man, he listened, but he also agreed with Russell. Give it time.

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SAN ANTONIO – Here’s how Sergio Garcia overcame the disappointment of his Masters defense that included an octuple-bogey 13 on the par-5 15th hole in the first round. He changed the diapers – “a lot of nappiesâ€� he calls them, using the British term – of his daughter Azalea that wife Angela gave birth to a month ago. He hung out with his parents and with Angela’s parents, making a couple of trips to their 1,200-acre ranch near Austin. He practiced a bit with his dad, Victor. Last weekend, he joined Ben Crenshaw in a two-day member-member tournament at Austin Golf Club. They won, of course. “That was nice,â€� Garcia said. He generally just kept busy, and now this week he’ll play in the Valero Texas Open, making his first start since 2010 at the TPC San Antonio Oaks Course. Even though he was a player-consultant to designer Greg Norman, there is lots to learn and recall. He played the back nine on Tuesday and quickly realized that patience will be a key in dealing with the stiff breezes that roll through the 7,435-yard layout. What Garcia didn’t do was brood over how his defense of the Green Jacket will likely be remembered for the five balls he pumped into the water at the 15th in the first round. “I think having a Green Jacket helps,â€� Garcia said. Indeed it does. Shrugging off the 15-over score at Augusta National – the highest score ever recorded by a Masters champ in his title defense — can be difficult for any elite player. Garcia acknowledged Tuesday that had this happened earlier in his career, he might’ve struggled to put it in perspective and move beyond it. But he’s a major champion, as well as a husband and father. There is no time to dwell on past negatives. He’s busy dealing with the present and planning for the future of his family. “It’s one of those things that happens, and it’s happened to me before and it probably will happen again in the future,â€� Garcia said. “That’s the nature of golf. There at Augusta it can happen. So it’s what it is. … “You just deal with it the best way possible. Obviously I was trying to hit the right shots throughout the process and unfortunately the result didn’t want to come out the way maybe it should have, but it’s one of those things.â€� Had the 6-iron he hit with his approach climbed up the hill, he might have been staring at an eagle opportunity. Instead, it rolled back into the water, and “those thingsâ€� unraveled from there. His 13 was the highest score ever recorded on that hole and tied for the highest on any hole at Augusta National. Tough to put that into perspective, especially when you don’t think there was a bad shot in the mix. But Garcia, who became the 11th defending Masters champ to miss the cut, has found the perspective. “As soon as we finished Friday afternoon, you know, it was pretty much forgotten and the week was over,â€� Garcia said. “That’s what it is. I think at the end of the day you’ve got to realize that sometimes it happens, sometimes it goes the wrong way, and without doing much wrong, it can happen. But you learn from it and you move forward and try to be better.â€� Garcia will certainly try to be better at TPC San Antonio than his first visit in 2010, when he tied for 45th while shooting 1 under. The tournament was held in May that year, but when it was moved up a month to April starting in 2011, Garcia was unable to keep it on his playing schedule due to travel conflicts with the Spanish Open in his native homeland. Garcia skipped last week’s event won by Jon Rahm. His adopted homeland now is Texas, since it’s Angela’s home state. It’s also a state in which Garcia has enjoyed three of his 10 career PGA TOUR wins – two in Dallas, one in Fort Worth. Garcia said it’s no coincidence that he’s done well in Texas. “I think I’ve always enjoyed playing in the wind,â€� he said. “It’s usually windy here in Texas, so I’ve always felt quite comfortable in this state. I’ve been fortunate to do fairly well throughout my career in Texas.â€� “I guess now I feel like even more of a Texan than I felt even before. It’s a good state.â€� Consider Garcia to be in a good mental state, too. Dealing with the mess at Augusta National is one thing. Dealing with the mess of a month-old child? That’ll quickly bring anybody back to reality.

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