The inside story on Vijay Singh’s unique Mizuno irons at The Honda Classic

DETROIT – Living life on the alternate’s list doesn’t provide a whole lot of glamour. Nate Lashley will tell you that without hesitation. But at the same time, the he’s thankful for the opportunity he has at this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic to prove that it can lead to brighter days and a permanent status. There’s a long way to go, Lashley conceded, “but hopefully I can go out there and play like today, play relaxed golf and have some fun.� The fun was understandable, a bogey-free day with nine birdies and a mere 23 putts at Detroit Golf Club. At 9-under 63 in Round 1, he has a solo lead for the first time in an unheralded PGA TOUR career, he will tell you, that hasn’t always been like the fun he had Thursday. Last year’s rookie season saw him finish 172nd on the FedExCup points list and led to a trip back to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. He is playing this year on a minor medical exemption and has found himself on a weekly basis on the outside looking in. RELATED: Kisner finding his game in Detroit | Fowler all in at Rocket Mortgage Classic | Woodland back to work after major victory Last week, Lashley opted to stay home in Arizona, so he wasn’t in position to accept a spot into the Travelers Championship that materialized late. “When you (are an) alternate, it’s not a whole lot of fun, that feeling of only missing an event by one person.� This week, he arrived in town more confident of a spot and, indeed, he got the word around noon Wednesday that he was in. Given that Lashley in limited opportunities (14) has gotten to No. 132nd in FedExCup points, a playing chance this week is well-timed as he jockeys to get into the playoffs. So, yes, a career-best score on the TOUR made him smile. He was asked the secret and the 36-year-old laughed. “Just get up, take it one shot at a time,� he said. “Just the same, old thing that everybody says. “It’s just no easy to do.� Lashley knows better than most. He was a junior at the University of Arizona in 2004 when his parents and girlfriend flew to Oregon to watch him in an NCAA Regional. They were killed in a plane crash returning to their home in Nebraska. His circuitous route to the TOUR, a road that featured years of minitour golf and a dramatic win on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017 has tested his patience, but Thursday he was a model of consistency – he hit 10 fairways, 13 greens, and posted whopping 4.359 strokes gained: putting. “I got it under the hole on most holes,� he said, “and had a lot of uphill putts with not a lot of break.� Lashley was hardly the only one to take advantage of a premier day of scoring chances at this newest of golf courses on the TOUR schedule. For most of the day, the field average for the par-72 layout was under 70 and roughly 75 percent of the 156-player field was in red numbers. Shockingly, some heralded names were not, most notably Gary Woodland, the recent winner of the U.S. Open. He bogeyed two of his first three holes, struggled most of the day off the tee, and had to finish with a flourish – birdies on four of his last six holes – to shoot 73. “My timing was off,� conceded Woodland, who suggested he was almost too excited to be back in action since winning at Pebble Beach two weeks ago. “The energy, the fans were amazing. Crowds were huge, which was awesome (but) I was just quick. I hit everything right all day.� Right, as in the wrong direction. Which was the opposite of Lashley, who did nearly everything right, as in correctly.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jordan Spieth has displayed a new skill set in 2017, and it’s one that we still have to get accustomed to. His ballstriking has been the key to his success, while his trusty putter has failed to live up to his standards. That was the case again Thursday as Spieth began his pursuit of the career Grand Slam at Quail Hollow. This is a course that requires players to drive the ball well, and Spieth leaned heavily on the longest club in his bag. It was the shortest one that frustrated him, though. “It was just the putter,â€� Spieth said after a first-round 72 that left him five shots behind leader Thorbjorn Olesen. Spieth had 32 putts Thursday, and didn’t make a putt longer than 5 feet. “If you told me I was going to hit my driver the way that I did today, I would have definitely thought I shot a few under par,â€� Spieth said. “I can’t putt any worse than I did today.” This was only the fifth time this season that Spieth had 32 or more putts. It was his fifth-worst performance in Strokes Gained: Putting (-2.15 strokes) this season, as well. If Spieth is to become the youngest player ever to complete the career Grand Slam – and this is his lone opportunity to break Tiger Woods’ record – then Spieth will have to win in a way that is unprecedented for him. Spieth has never finished in the top 10 in a major after shooting over par in the first round. His best finish was a T11 at this year’s Masters, where he shot a first-round 75 after making a quadruple-bogey at the 15th hole. He battled to within two shots of the lead after 54 holes, but shot another 75 in the last round. Spieth’s caddie, Michael Greller, used that tournament as inspiration when Spieth arrived at the seventh tee Thursday at 3 over par. “He goes, ‘Grind these last few. You had a chance to win Augusta and we were in a worse position at this point,’â€� Spieth said. “And he was spot on.â€� They knew birdie opportunities awaited, at Quail Hollow’s par-5 seventh and the short, par-4 eighth hole. There was still the possibility to turn in an even-par scorecard. “If I were to finish par, par, par, I would have thrown myself out of the tournament,â€� Spieth said. Instead, he made two birdies and a solid par at the final hole. His rally started with a 296-yard drive into the fairway at the seventh hole. His playing partners, Brooks Koepka and Sergio Garcia, had to lay-up after missing the fairway, but Spieth was able to hit a hybrid that just trickled through the green and set-up a two-putt birdie. A 290-yard drive into the fairway on the next hole set up a 57-yard approach that he knocked stiff. Spieth hit 10 of 14 fairways while averaging 298.8 yards on all tee shots. He gained 2.03 strokes off the tee Thursday, his second-best performance in that stat this season. He also hit 12 of 18 greens. “If I would have shot 1 over and didn’t strike it well and everything was average, it would have been fine. But when I had the chances that I had and I just couldn’t get the ball to go in on the greens, that is when I get the most frustrated I can get out there,â€� Spieth said. He is in the midst of the best ballstriking season of his career, leading the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green. Earlier this year, he said that his playoff victory at the Travelers Championship was the first time that he won on the PGA TOUR without putting well. His Open Championship win, the one that set the stage for the career Grand Slam, will be remembered for the long putts he holed down the stretch, but he also wasn’t content with his putting performance at Royal Birkdale. He ranks 47th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season, his worst ranking in that statistic in his career. Spieth, who teed off on No. 10 on Thursday, missed a downhill, 8-foot birdie putt at the par-3 13th. He drove the green at the next hole, but his 120-foot eagle putt rolled off the back of the green, leading to par. Spieth also three-putted the sixth and seven holes from just off the green. He missed 10-foot par putts on both holes. “He didn’t make as many putts as he usually does. I feel like that 15- to 20-foot range, usually see him make a bunch of putts. He just didn’t make any,â€� said Koepka, who shot 68. “He had a couple putts that he just ran 10, 15 feet by. But he struck it really well.â€� Spieth knows he has ground to make up. He has started with 68 or better in all three of his major wins. He held the 36-hole and 54-hole leads in all three victories, as well. “I know I’m still in it, but I know that tomorrow’s round becomes that much more important. … I’ve got to make up ground,” Spieth said. “If I’m five back at the start of the day, I’ve got to be less than five back after Friday to really feel like I can play the way this golf course needs to be played and still be able to win.”

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HONOLULU, Hawaii – Blayne Barber’s caddy Cory Gilmer is in an intensive care unit at a local Hawaiian hospital after collapsing and hitting his head in Waikiki last night. Gilmer was out some fellow caddies in downtown Waikiki after finishing dinner with Barber when he is said to have collapsed while sitting on a high-top chair, hitting his head hard on the ground in the process. He was rushed to hospital with swelling around the brain and has been unresponsive for the night and most of the morning. Barber rushed to Gilmer’s side as soon as he heard the news. “By the time I got there, he was unconscious, and the paramedics were there. Then I went to the hospital with him last night. And he’s pretty much just been unresponsive since then,â€� he explained. “He’s in the neurological ICU, a lot of bleeding and swelling in his brain. So, I went by this morning, and that was kind of the last update I had. He’s in pretty critical condition. His parents are flying in tomorrow.â€� To make matters worse Barber was caught up in the false alarm regarding a missile strike in Hawaii when he returned to the hospital in the morning, forcing him to head to lower ground. He returned to Waialae Country Club to play the third round with his brother Shayne on the bag, hoping the golf would take his mind off things. But the emotions got the better of him as he shot a 2-over 72 – dropping him to T68. Barber had considered withdrawing from the event but ultimately decided to play on given there was little he could do. “I’ve been gone from my kids and my wife for ten days, and between that happening to Cory and then just the emotions of facing your own mortality in that moment, it’s just been a heavy day for sure,â€� he said emotionally. “It certainly wiped me out. I was kind of out of it all day, just trying to push through and have something to concentrate on, but it was hard to focus on any of that. “I slept about three hours. That was about the hardest day of golf I’ve ever played.â€� Doctors were trying to contain the swelling medicinally overnight and had not yet taken a surgical route in his recovery. Barber said there was nothing he was aware of in Gilmer’s medical history that would be prone to him collapsing. “Seizures was mentioned (by some in attendance to the collapse), but as far as I know, he collapsed, and the head trauma is the issue,â€� Barber said. “We don’t know why he collapsed. I mean, he could have been dehydrated or any number of things. I don’t think there’s any necessarily clear answers at the moment.â€�

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