Spieth shoots 61 for share of Phoenix Open lead

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Now in its second year, THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES is the first regular-season PGA TOUR event to be held in Korea. Here are six things you should know about this week’s tournament on Jeju Island. 1. TOP PICK. Based on critical reviews, Nine Bridges is the best course in Korea. Golf Digest has ranked it No. 1 in Korea for seven consecutive years and listed it at 23rd among the world’s greatest 100 courses (a year earlier, it was ranked 79th). The magazine noted that architects Ronald Fream and David Dale utilized a site with “natural streams edged with massive Japanese Maples and 20-foot-tall Korean Azaleas, but they also transplanted 300 mature evergreens like Kryptomeria and cedars for additional color.â€� Golf magazine, citing Nine Bridges’ “tranquil setting, with holes etched into pine-clad, rolling topography,â€� listed it 41st among its biennial top 100 world list. Chi Chi Rodriguez once called it the “Taj Mahal of golfâ€� because every hole looked like a postcard. 2. FIRST-TIMER. Surprisingly, Korea’s most famous and successful golfer had never played Nine Bridges until last year’s inaugural event. K.J. Choi, an eight-time TOUR winner – including the 2011 PLAYERS Championship – grew up in Wando, an island that’s just 60 miles north of Jeju Island across the Yellow Sea. When Choi earned his TOUR card in 1999, he moved to the United States; meanwhile, Nine Bridges did not open until 2001. Thus, while Choi has visited Jeju Island many times in his life, he never had a chance to play the course until a practice round on Sunday. Any other reasons why he’s never played the course? “Very exclusive membership,â€� Choi said with a smile. “Only members and guests.â€� He is not among the 13 Korean players in the field this week, but one player who is actually grew up on Jeju Island – Sungjae Im, a PGA TOUR rookie whom this week was named the Web.com Tour Player of the Year. (For more on Im’s return home, click here.)  3. PRO EXPERIENCE. Nine Bridges now hosts an annual TOUR event, but it’s not the first professional event at the course. The CJ Nine Bridges Classic, Korea’s first LPGA tournament, was played there from 2002-05. Fittingly, legendary Korean golfer Se Ri Pak – who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007 – won the inaugural event, battling poor conditions for a six-stroke win. At 3 under, she was the only player under par. The 2005 event, also played in tough weather (cold temperatures, wind and rain) was won by Jee Young Lee, who was then 19 years old and one of 12 players in the field from the Korean LPGA. 4. COOL TROPHY. The tournament trophy is engraved with the names of every player in the field, utilizing the Korean alphabet known as Hangeul. The names are showcased using Jikji, which was confirmed by UNESCO in 2001 as the world’s oldest metalloid type. Last year’s winner, Justin Thomas, had his name accentuated in gold. The wooden bridge at the base of the trophy symbolizes the bridge to the 18th hole at Nine Bridges. 5. MOUNT HALLA. At 6,400 feet, the highest mountain in South Korea is Mount Halla, the massive shield volcano in the center of Jeju Island. According to ExtremeScience.com, shield volcanos are “the more quiescent, lumbering giants of the volcano world,â€� with gently, sloping sides formed by lava eruptions. If you’ve ever seen the sunrise at the top of Haleakala in Maui, then you’re quite familiar with shield volcanos. It’s also why some have referred to Jeju Island as the “Maui of Korea.â€� The course, which consists of two nines (the Highland Course and Creek Course) is near the base of the mountain. 6. EIGHT YOU CAN CROSS. If you happen to find yourself at Nine Bridges, you may notice there are just eight bridges on the course. Each of the actual bridges is made of stone and provides access over one of the course’s water features. As for the ninth bridge? It’s actually a metaphoric one — the bridge between the club and its golf-playing members and guests. Editor’s note: Portions of this story originally appeared last year in a story posted on PGATOUR.COM.

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The golf gods giveth, the golf gods taketh away. Just four days after reclaiming his position as world No. 1 with a victory at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Justin Thomas lost his ball in a tree at the par-4 seventh hole at the 102nd PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park. The bad break was part of a first-round 71 for the FedExCup leader. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Nine things to know about Harding Park | Woods opens with solid 68 Thomas was in the marquee group of the morning, with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, which started on the back nine. Thomas had double-bogeyed the third hole, but steadied himself with three straight pars to remain at even par as he stood on the seventh tee. He lost his tee shot right. Then he literally lost it. The ball soared into the lush greenery of a cypress tree, and lodged there. It was a situation that Woods predicted we would see this week. “With the overhang of these cypress trees and the ball – there may be a couple lost balls here,” Woods said before the tournament. “Cut a corner and ball hangs up there, that could happen very easily here and has happened and I’m sure will this week as well.” It did. Thomas stood in the rough, looking forlornly up at the tree, recalling a similar moment in the first round of the 2014 John Deere Classic, when he also lost a ball in a tree. He later tweeted: Well, it wasn’t the last time. And it wasn’t funny this time, either. When his ball never came down at TPC Harding Park, Thomas was forced to take the stroke-and-distance penalty. His next tee shot was his third shot on the hole. It was unlucky, and with the stiff penalty he made another double-bogey. He did well just to salvage a 71 with a birdie at the difficult ninth hole. McIlroy shot even-par 70 and Woods was low man in the group with a 68. To Woods’ point, the incident was somewhat predictable. At the Olympic Club, which is visible across Lake Merced from TPC Harding Park, there have been multiple high-profile incidents involving balls hanging in the thick cypress trees that are common to the city’s golf courses. Lee Janzen saw his ball get stuck in a tree during the final round of the 1998 U.S. Open at Olympic Club, but it fell out just before the five-minute search limit and he went on to win the tournament. Lee Westwood started the final round of the 2012 U.S. Open at Olympic in fourth place, but he lost a tee shot in a cypress tree and went on to finish four back of Webb Simpson. Even Woods, who attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, just down the peninsula from TPC Harding Park, admitted to having lost golf balls to the cypress trees. “Well, not here,” he said. “I’ve had a few at (nearby) Lake Merced. That’s one of the tightest golf courses and most claustrophobic places that I’ve ever played. Yeah, I’ve lost a few there.”

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