The First Look: THE PLAYERS Championship

The first round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide takes place today from Muirfield Village. Here’s everything you need to know to follow Thursday’s action. Click here to watch Tiger Woods exclusively on Thursday morning on PGA TOUR LIVE Round 1 tee times Round 1 leaderboard HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 2:30-6:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 12:30-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, noon-2:15 p.m. (GC), 2:30-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 7:15 a.m.-6 p.m. ET (featured groups). Saturday, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups), 3-6 p.m. (featured holes). Sunday, 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (featured groups), 2:30-6 p.m. (featured holes). International subscribers (via GOLF.tv): Thursday-Friday, 11:15 to 22:00 GMT. Saturday-Sunday, 12:30 to 22:00. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, noon-6:30 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com). FEATURED GROUPS Tiger Woods/Justin Rose/Bryson DeChambeau (Watch Thursday exclusively on PGA TOUR LIVE) Tee times: Round 1 (8:26 a.m. ET, No. 10); Round 2 (1:16 p.m. ET, No. 1) Phil Mickelson/Rickie Fowler/Matt Kuchar Tee times: Round 1 (1:16 p.m. ET, No. 1); Round 2 (8:26 p.m. ET, No. 10) Rory McIlroy/Jordan Spieth/Justin Thomas Tee times: Round 1 (8:15 a.m. ET, No. 10); Round 2 (1:05 p.m. ET, No. 1) Hideki Matsuyama/Jason Day/Adam Scott Tee times: Round 1 (1:05 p.m. ET, No. 1); Round 2 (8:15 a.m. ET, No. 10) MUST READS How Nicklaus built a masterpiece at Muirfield Power Rankings Expert Picks Tiger, Peyton tee is up in pro-am Thomas set to rejoin FedExCup race

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ATLANTA — Patrick Cantlay met his goal in the first round of the TOUR Championship on Thursday, and it had nothing to do with the score on his card or the size of his lead. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Patrick Reed says he felt his life was in danger with double pneumonia As the top seed in the FedExCup, he started with a two-shot lead over Tony Finau before even hitting a shot. He finished the warm, breezy day at East Lake at 3-under 67 with a two-shot lead over Jon Rahm. This was all about playing another tournament round. “I think being in the spot that I’m in, it would be easy to get ahead of yourself and easy to maybe stray from your game plan because you feel like you’re ahead,” Cantlay said. “And that’s just not helpful, so I’m not going to do that.” Only four players had a better score, so it was a good day regardless of the format that allows player to start at various points under par depending on their FedExCup position. Rahm began by chipping in for birdie, kept the round from getting away from him with a few key saves — one for bogey, one for par — at the turn, and ran off four birdies over his last seven holes for a 65. Cantlay, who started at 10-under par, moved to 13 under. Five shots behind was Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English, and only one of them managed to pick up a little ground on Cantlay while delivering one of the more exciting moments. That would be English, who was headed in the wrong direction when he stepped to the tee at the par-3 15th over water, the second-toughest hole at East Lake, smashed a 5-iron from 224 yards and watched it drop for a hole-in-one, the first one since the TOUR Championship first came to East Lake in 1998. He followed with two more birdies for a 66, one better than Cantlay on the day, a little closer than when English started. DeChambeau birdied his last three holes to salvage a 69. He started three shots behind and now is five shots behind. Finau, meanwhile, had a 72 and went from two shots behind to seven back. This is the third year of the format, and Cantlay doesn’t know how the lower half feels. He was the No. 2 seed in 2019 when it started. That first time didn’t go well. He had one of his worst weeks of the year, which cost him nearly $2 million with how far he fell. Justin Thomas was the Nos. 1 and 3 seeds the previous two times. Now he’s at No. 6, meaning he started six shots out of the lead. That was a new experience. He noticed he already was in 10th place by the time he teed off, based on some early scoring, and found that to be a bit jarring. Worse yet was being 1 over on the front nine. Starting out six shots behind in the first place, his hopes could have ended early. But he shot 31 on the back nine, five birdies and one impressive par save on the 14th, and pieced together a 67. He’s still six back. It could have been worse. “When you start behind like that, unfortunately, you just don’t have the luxury of shooting a 1 over or 2 over the first round,” Thomas said. “And I salvaged a good round out there and feel like I can easily go out there and shoot 6 or 7 under one of these next three days. And hopefully I do.” Rahm started four back and, like Cantlay, chose not to pay attention to anything but the next shot, even as the good start looked as though it could get away from him. He took bogey from the left rough on No. 7, had to get up-and-down from behind the eighth green for bogey and saved par from a bunker on the par-3 ninth. That was as important as some of his birdies. Now he’s two behind Cantlay with 54 holes left, and now matter how odd it might seem at the start, now it feels like a regular tournament. “It’s very easy to get caught up on how far back you start. I don’t think I really once thought about it out there. I was just trying to post a score,” Rahm said. “My job is to hit the best shot I can each time and that’s all can I control.”

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ORLANDO – Citing a back injury, Jason Day withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard on Thursday morning. Day, 31, started his round on the back nine and informed playing partners Rickie Fowler and Ian Poulter on the 16th hole that he would not be continuing. Day was 2 over at the time. The 12-time PGA TOUR winner Day had five top-15 finishes in five starts this season, but hadn’t played since a T4 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Feb. 10. He had spoken of a sore back heading into the Arnold Palmer, and after making a bogey, a double-bogey, a birdie and three pars, he headed to the clubhouse for treatment. A former resident of Orlando and Bay Hill member, Day won the 2016 Arnold Palmer Invitational and was among the pre-tournament favorites again this year. He also won THE PLAYERS Championship in 2016; the tournament at TPC Sawgrass begins next week.    Day said that with rest, he hopes to be well enough to tee it up at THE PLAYERS. “I (aggravated) it last Sunday,â€� he said, “and then got an MRI Monday, which came back that I had an annular tear in my disc, and then I’ve got set problems as well. My back was sore when I was practicing from Tuesday to Saturday, and I was going to practice on Sunday, but I woke up and couldn’t really walk or sit in the car. “I was on a dose pack to try get the inflammation out of it,â€� he added, “and that didn’t get any better. I saw a physio here (in Orlando) and tried to do as much work as I possibly could to get ready for this week. I couldn’t play at 100 percent today, so I just wanted to see if I could get out here and (my back) may have loosened up. But, unfortunately, it didn’t, so I had to pull out.”

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