Scheffler, McIlroy in hunt early at Houston Open

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Mackenzie Hughes arrived at the TPC Sawgrass with no scar tissue and played his first round at THE PLAYERS Championship with no bogeys. Pretty simple, eh? The Canadian rookie shook his head and laughed. Even after going bogey-free in his debut Thursday for a 5-under 67 to share the lead with William McGirt, Hughes saw enough of THE PLAYERS Stadium Course to realize that surprises lurk around every corner. “There’s just not really a moment where you can let up,” Hughes said. No need explaining that to Adam Scott, who won THE PLAYERS in 2004 and was off to a strong start on a steamy afternoon when he was 6 under and heading to the infamous par-3 17th with its island green. First, he watched Masters Tournament champion Sergio Garcia hit a gap wedge that took one big hop, land just behind the cup and disappear for a hole-in-one. Scott followed by spinning a shot off the bank and into the water for a double bogey, and he compounded that with another double bogey. “I played some good golf out there and unfortunately not on the last two,” Scott said after settling for a 70. “It happens.” At least he had company. Dustin Johnson’s first wedge of the way hit the pin, caromed off the green and led to bogey. On a day when nothing seemed to go his way, the world’s No. 1 player opened with a 71. Rory McIlroy went to tap in from 2 feet and missed it, and then had to make one twice that long for his double bogey on the 10th hole. He shot 73. Through it all, Hughes was rock solid. Only twice did he have par putts longer than 3 feet, and he made them both. The last piece of stress came on the final hole when trees block his way to the green. To chip out sideways would risk chipping into the water. He found a 4-foot wide window in which he had to keep it under on branch and go over two more. It was a large enough gap and the perfect shot for a 6-iron. “I was close enough to the trees. It paid off,” said Hughes, who already has won (Sea Island) in his rookie season on the PGA TOUR. McGirt played in morning and made a pair of eagles on the back nine to atone in his round of 67. Among those at 68 was Jon Rahm, another first-timer at this lucrative event who had one of four bogey-free rounds on the steamy day in north Florida. Even with a mild wind in the afternoon, just over a third of the field broke par. Fast starts and bad finishes were the norm, and not just for Scott. Defending champion Jason Day ran off two straight birdies after making the turn and was in the lead at 5 under, which for the former world No. 1 was a peculiar position. He hasn’t won since THE PLAYERS last year. Day, however, made three bogeys over his last four holes and had to settle for a 70. He was playing in the same group as Rickie Fowler, the 2015 champion who also got off to a fast start until one bad shot — a really bad shot — on his 15th hole at the par-4 seventh. From the middle of the fairway, Fowler blocked it so badly to the right that it hit a cart path and went deep into the pines. It took him two shots to get out and he made double bogey. Fowler also shot 70. Fowler managed to see the big picture. “No one’s going crazy low or anything like that,” he said. Garcia’s round was different. He made three bogeys and a double bogey in his opening six holes and went out in 40, the first nine holes of competition he has played since winning the Masters a month ago. He felt nerves on the first tee when he was introduced as the Masters champion. “The feeling was great,” he said. “I think I wasn’t quite in the tournament because of everything that’s been going on after the Masters win and media and people congratulating you left, right and center. I felt like I was a little bit up in the clouds, and when I woke up, I was 4 over after six.” Johnson still has only two rounds in the 60s out of 27 attempts at the Stadium Course. He could accept this 71 just because of all that went wrong — the wedge that hit the pin on No. 1, birdie putts that spun around the holes at Nos. 2 and 12. Johnson rallied late with a 25-foot eagle putt on the 16th hole. “It could have been really good today, but ended up just being OK,” Johnson said. McGirt was among 13 players from the morning draw who shot in the 60s, but he was the only player to get as low as 6 under until he missed a short par putt on the final hole. Told that no one had made eagle on both par 5s on the back nine in the opening round, McGirt didn’t have an answer. “Good numbers at a good time, made a good swing at a good time,” McGirt said. “You just kind of see the shot and hit the shot and see the putt and hit the putt.” He made it sound simple, even though THE PLAYERS Stadium Course can be anything but that.

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J.J. Spaun chalked it up to the long season that had ended with the second event of the FedExCup Playoffs. Last year’s BMW Championship was his 27th start of the season, after all, and he had a right to be tired. The weight loss? Well, maybe that was due to the grind, too. Plus, he had packed on a few pounds during the year — carrying 219 pounds on his 5-foot-9 frame at his heaviest — so seeing the drop on the scales didn’t exactly bother him. “I probably lost 15 pounds in a month without even trying,â€� Spaun recalls. “I was like, oh, my pants are fitting looser. And I liked it. I was like, oh, this is great. I’m losing some weight, you know. But then once I started noticing it was affecting my golf, then I knew something was up.â€� Between the fatigue and the unexplained weight loss, Spaun realized that his swing speed and corresponding distance was decreasing. Unable to build on the momentum of a tie for third at the Barracuda Championship, he didn’t finish higher than 35th in his final four events last year. Finally, Spaun’s fiancée, Melody Means, convinced him to go to the doctor. Maybe it was his thyroid, he thought. At any rate, those tests he had before he went to Asia to play in the CIMB Classic and the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges would surely offer an explanation. More than three weeks passed before the doctor’s office called, though, telling him to come back in. But Spaun was in Las Vegas to play in the Shriners Hospital for Children Open, the first of a three-week stretch, so a physician’s assistant delivered the news. His blood sugar was extremely high. Finally, Spaun had a diagnosis. At least, he did after sending his test results to Dr. Saleem Malik, who had hosted him during his time playing PGA TOUR Canada and remains a good friend. Spaun had type 2 diabetes. “So, he was like, yeah, don’t worry, everything is going to be fine,â€� Spaun remembers. “… It’s more of like having an allergy versus a disease. Like you’ve just got to watch what you eat, exercise and you’ll be fine. “It was good to hear that, that peace of mind, you know, especially when on the road.â€� Once the 28-year-old got back to his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, he went back to see the doctor. He needed to start eating healthier and exercise more – and as an added bonus, he ended up losing 35 pounds, the right way, this time. So, don’t expect to find Spaun hitting the drive-through at Taco Bell, which he calls his “soft spot,â€� anymore. That’s where he usually headed after a bad round or a double-bogey on the 18th hole left a bitter taste in his mouth. “I was like, oh, like let me just go eat a burrito,â€� Spaun says. “I mean, some people, you know, lean towards like alcohol or something, but I like to eat food. So unfortunately, I can’t do that. So, I’ve got to find other ways to kind of balance things out when I’m not having a good day.â€� As much as possible, Spaun has cut out processed sugars – saying goodbye to candy and ice cream, among other delights – and carbohydrates, giving up French fries or other starches. He keeps a special protein bar in his golf bag that gives him energy but has a low glycemic index. A plant-based protein shake is another go-to. “It’s difficult, but it’s great finding new alternatives to what I’m used to eating in the past,â€� Spaun said. “So, thank God for Whole Foods. … I’m accustomed to it now. It’s definitely a lifestyle change and my body’s feeling great.â€� The lab reports he got in early May bear out Spaun’s words. He’s no longer on medication, and his A1c, which measures how well the body controls the sugar in the blood, had dropped from 11.2 percent when he was first diagnosed to 5.9. The normal level is between 4-5.6 percent. “So, I think the dieting and the exercise has really paid off,â€� Spaun said. “… It’s all about having it under control. I’ll always be on that edge of, you know, going over or having those symptoms again. So, I’ve just got to really pay close attention to it.â€� Spaun hit the gym with a trainer three or four times a week last winter. His hour-long workouts would consist of weight training, agility drills and aerobics to keep the heart rate up. No breaks. Just one set after another. “I got stronger. I got my speed back,â€� Spaun recalls. “So, I’m still doing a little bit of both, but it’s more about more about diet and stuff because I’m already doing so much walking around in the course. “So, it’s important to not get my sugar too low, too, because that’s the other thing, you know, if you’re out there burning, you know, 5,000 calories a day playing golf and you can’t eat carbohydrates and you can’t eat sugar. It’s like, how do I find this perfect balance?â€� With all the changes going on in his body over the past eight months or so, Spaun admits that he has struggled to fine-tune the mechanics of his swing again. Even so, the Californian is a solid 86th in the FedExCup and has already topped the $1 million mark in earnings for the third straight year. While he calls his diagnosis a “rude awakening in a way,â€� the most important part is that Spaun feels better now. “I was getting so fatigued when I had uncontrolled diabetes,â€� he says. “I didn’t even know, and I was getting agitated on the course. I didn’t know why I was hitting it shorter. It was just, you know, it was just a big, like slippery slope of just things in it, and it mentally, it was tough, too.â€� Now he knows how to handle it – on and off the golf course.

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