Round 1: Casey leads, Woods in hunt as field plays catch-up

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tommy Fleetwood narrowly qualified for THE PLAYERS Championship and then endured a long, wet start at the TPC Sawgrass with a 6-under 66 to share the early lead with AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am winner Tom Hoge. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Jon Rahm switches back to U.S. Open-winning putter Where that leaves them after the opening round could take time to determine. The PGA TOUR enjoyed ideal weather with no delays for nine weeks in four states across five time zones to start the year. And then for its biggest event, it barely got started. More than an inch of overnight rain delayed the start by an hour. Storms in the area resulted in another delay of more than four hours. Fleetwood, a Ryder Cup star in Paris in 2018 who has gone two years since his last victory, returned from the long delay to complete a string of three straight birdies around the turn and then kept his round together with two big putts, one for par and another for birdie. Hoge had an eagle on the par-5 second hole, his 11th of the round, and shot 31 on the front nine to join him in the clubhouse at 66. Keith Mitchell was poised to join the until his approach to the 18th was right of the flag and landed on the slope of gnarly rough in the mounds, and he failed to save par. He was at 67, along with Genesis Invitational winner Joaquin Niemann, Anirban Lahiri and Kramer Hickok. The stop-and-start nature might not be over. The forecast called for a slightly lower chance of rain Friday — 99% instead of 100% — and there was a chance those who finished the round might not see the course again until Saturday. Six players from the early side of the draw did not finish, meaning they return at 7:15 a.m. Friday to play one or two holes before getting the rest of the day off. Twelve players never even hit a tee shot. Ian Poulter can rest easy, even if it takes time for his heart rate to steady. The 46-year-old could sense the horn about to sound to suspend play for darkness. By rule, players can finish the hole that anyone in the group has started. Poulter was on the tee at the par-3 17th, the island green with a back pin and soft greens, when he fired is shot and barely saw it land 4 feet from the cup. He jogged all the way to the green, holed the birdie putt, ran through the tunnel beneath the bleachers and onto the 18th tee. He hit his tee shot as the group in front cleared out of the way from the fairway. He did the same thing 11 years ago. Even with only 66 players completing the round, that was enough time for the Stadium Course to provide its share of thrills and spills, mostly the latter. Harold Varner III, needing good results to stay in the top 50 and make a trip to the Masters, had a two-shot lead when he stepped to the 17th tee. His shot spun sharply down the slope, across the light cut of rough and into the water. His next shot from the drop zone nearly did the same. He made triple bogey, dropped another shot on the 18th and shot 69. “Just was in between clubs and didn’t execute the shot, and that’s what you get a lot of out here,” Varner said. Amazingly, that was the only ball in the water out of 69 tee shots. No need telling that to Adam Scott. The former PLAYERS champion pumped two tee shots into the water off the 18th tee and took a quadruple bogey on his way to a 78. Fleetwood has reason to be happy just to have a tee time. He missed the cut at the Honda Classic and narrowly stayed inside the top 50, one of the criterium for THE PLAYERS Championship. For the most part, it was safe and steady play, far from perfect though Sawgrass rarely demands that. He was 6 under through 14 holes when he hit a wild drive into the pine straw to the right of the sixth fairway, leading to bogey. He was even further to the right on the seventh, but a superb save from behind the green kept him from dropping another shot, and then he holed a 25-foot birdie on the par-3 eighth. “I’m chuffed to be in on that score,” Fleetwood said. “I felt like I drove the ball well aside from a couple, and I felt like I chipped and putted great. For sure, that was the most I could have got out of the round. So days like that are very, very pleasing.” Long. Wet. But pleasing.

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LAS VEGAS — Sam Burns won the Sanderson Farms Championship last week and is trying to put it behind him. He’s playing as though it never ended. RELATED: Leaderboard | Inside the Field: THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT Burns made a pair of 6-foot par putts on the only two greens he missed in regulation, ran off eight birdies in the morning for an 8-under 63 that left him a shot behind Sungjae Im and Chad Ramey on Friday in the Shriners Children’s Open. Not only has Burns won twice in the last six months, he also lost in a playoff at a World Golf Championships event and finished one shot out of a playoff at Riviera this year. The 25-year-old is comfortable at the top, and it’s showing. Key to this week was not to let last week linger. “What we tried to do is just last week is last week,” he said. “This week is Shriners and preparing for this week, trying to make sure Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday that we are giving ourselves the best opportunity to play well this week. “Obviously, incredible honored that I won last week and such a fun time, but just trying to kind of leave that there.” Im and Ramey each closed their afternoon rounds with birdies on the par-5 ninth, with Ramey making a 13-footer after hitting his approach into the right greenside bunker. They were at 14-under 128 at the TPC Summerlin, each opening 63-65 on a course that was doused with rain. Im won the Honda Classic last year for his first PGA TOUR title. “There’s two days left to play, so I like to try to keep focused on my game and try to take it one shot at a time,” the 23-year-old South Korean player said. “It’s going to be difficult if it’s windy. I have to be more strategic to the course management.” Ramey is making third start of the year and fifth in his PGA TOUR career. The 29-year-old former Mississippi State player earned his tour card this year through the Korn Kerry Tour. “The first tournament of the year I didn’t drive it very good and didn’t putt it very good,” Ramsey said. “So, the last few weeks I’ve kind of been hitting those points pretty hard, and I’ve kind of feel like I got it back under myself a little better right now. I hit it really well off the tee and I’m making putts. You can’t ask for much more.” Adam Schenk had a 65 to match Burns at 13 under. Aaron Wise was another stroke back after a 62. Matthew Wolff (67), who lost in a playoff last year, was 11 under with Honda Classic winner Matt Jones (67), Adam Hadwin (64), Andrew Putnam (64), Slovakian silver medalist Rory Sabbatini (66), Harry Hall (65) and Talor Gooch (67). Sung Kang followed an opening 61 with a 73 to fall six shots back at 8 under. Four-time major champion Brooks Koepka shot a 67 to get to 7 under. While Burns remained hot, that wasn’t the case with some others who contended last week at the Country Club of Jackson. Cameron Young, a runner-up last week, and 54-hole leader Sahith Theegala missed cut by a stroke, each shooting 70-68. They had company. Rickie Fowler managed a 66, but also fell a stroke short of the weekend as he tries to find his game. Scottie Scheffler, unbeaten in three matches in his Ryder Cup debut two weeks ago, also dropped out. Burns played well in the opening round, too, except for the par-3 17th when he slightly pulled his tee shot into the water and made double bogey. There were no such issues in the second round. He was efficient as ever and remained dialed in with his irons. Only two of his eight birdies were outside about 6 feet. He two-putted his final hole, the par-5 ninth, from 35 feet.

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