Tough act to follow: Thomas to defend Sony title

Hahn shoots 64, takes lead at Byron Nelson

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Notes and observations from the first round of the FedEx St. Jude Classic, where Matt Every took the lead among the early finishers with a 6-under-par 64, and Scott Brown, Stewart Cink and Colombian Web.com Tour graduate Sebastian Munoz matched him in the afternoon. Charl Schwartzel, making his first start here since 2010, and Australian Matt Jones got around in 65 and were one back. For more coverage from TPC Southwind, click here for the Daily Wrap-up. EVERY LOOKS TO RALLY The winner of the 2014 and 2015 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, Matt Every came into this week 206th in driving accuracy (43.23 percebt) and 223rd in FedExCup points. He had missed 17 cuts in 21 starts, withdrawn twice, and made $33,091. Then came Thursday, when he hit 10 of 14 fairways, and 11 of 18 greens in regulation. He also took just 24 strokes on the greens, making 124 feet, 2 inches worth of putts.  The biggest difference, he said: no more issues with the driver. “I drove it really well today,â€� said Every, 33. “So I’ll just kind of ride that into my next couple days.â€� Still, even after shooting his best score this season by five shots, and just his fourth round in the 60s in what has been a trying year, he didn’t want to look too far ahead. “I haven’t played well in a couple years,â€� he said, “and I’ve been out here for like seven or eight, so I kind of know the drill. Like, one round is not that big a deal. It’s nice to play well, but yeah, they don’t hand out trophies after the first round.â€� SCOTT: NEW SCHEDULE IS WORKING Adam Scott shot a 1-over 71 in his first round at the FedEx St. Jude Classic since 2007. All in all, it was not a particularly memorable accomplishment for the 13-time PGA TOUR winner, who struggled on the greens and racked up an unhelpful 30 putts. Still, Scott said his new scheduling wrinkle this year has paid dividends. Rather than take the week off prior to the majors, he decided to play, which is why he’s here. “I’ve set my practice schedules and my playing schedules all around majors a little different this year, and my plan is to play my way into form,â€� said Scott, 36. “It kind of has given me some good results at the Masters and TPC so far, so hopefully again a good week here, the confidence goes up and go tackle the U.S. Open next week.â€� Since 1934, just 11 players have won on TOUR and then won a major the following week, among them Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson. But not Scott. With his new scheduling wrinkle this year, he finished T9 at the Masters, and T6 at THE PLAYERS Championship. As for his putting at TPC Southwind on Thursday, he planned to spend some time on the practice green. “No wind, pretty soft, good scores are out there,â€� Scott said. “… It was good scoring out there this morning. I just didn’t make any putts, which is disappointing.â€� THORNBERRY LIVING LARGE Amateur Braden Thornberry, 20, saw plenty of familiar faces in his gallery Thursday. He is from Olive Branch, Miss., which is only about a 45-minute drive southeast of TPC Southwind, and if he didn’t exactly light up the course with a 1-over 71, that was fine. The newly minted NCAA individual champion and Haskins Award winner, he’s done more than enough lately. “It was cool,â€� he said of his first TOUR start. “It was pretty much what I was expecting. A little less nerves off the first than I was expecting. Hit that one down the fairway and kind of went from there, so actually it went pretty well.â€� He made two birdies and no bogeys on the first nine holes of his TOUR career, but struggled with three bogeys on his second. The first Ole Miss Rebel to win the NCAA title, Thornberry tied the school record with seven wins in his sophomore season. Still, there’s college golf and then there’s TOUR golf, and on Thursday he found himself sneaking looks at the stars he grew up watching on TV. “Phil was on No. 2,â€� he said, “and I saw the crowd following him so I wanted to watch him hit a shot or two, so that’s still pretty cool. But trying to stay in my own lane.â€� FEDEX ST. JUDE A MALNATI MAJOR Knoxville resident Peter Malnati admits the FedEx St. Jude may be about as close as he gets to a hometown tournament on the PGA TOUR. And while 32 players in this week’s field have qualified for next week’s U.S. Open at Erin Hills, not so for Malnati. So when Malnati opened his tournament with a double-bogey 6 at the 468-yard 10th hole, where he advanced his second shot, from the right rough, just 26 feet, and later missed a 3 ½-foot bogey putt, he wasn’t about to give up. He made no bogeys and five birdies the rest of the way for a 67, a solid start in his bid to improve his FedExCup number from 186. “I’ve told everyone that kind of where I am in my career, every PGA TOUR event feels like a major to me,â€� said Malnati, who won last year’s Sanderson Farms Championship but has yet to find his form this season, his best being a T27 at the Sony Open of Hawaii. “How many majors have you played? Well, they all feel like a major to me,â€� Malnati continued. “This is my home-state event so it definitely has a little extra kick and it’s fun to see people out. There’s some familiar faces, just people that I’ve known growing up and playing amateur events here in the area, so it’s really cool.â€� ODDS AND ENDS Munoz, 24, would have been in the lead alone had he converted a 10-foot birdie putt on 18. At 197th in the FedExCup, the Bogota native’s 64 was surprising, but he specializes in surprises. The former University of North Texas golfer needed a sponsor’s exemption to get into the Web.com Tour’s Club Colombia Championship Presented by Claro last season—and won. He finished 22nd on the regular season Web.com Tour money list to earn his TOUR card. … Stewart Cink is 60th in the FedExCup race and punched his ticket to the U.S. Open at the 36-hole sectional qualifying Monday. Tired? Nah. Cink, 44, made nine birdies at TPC Southwind on Thursday. One of the keys, he said, has been putting coach Craig Welty, with whom he has been working for about a year. “The thing that was missing though was the exceptional rounds weren’t there before, and now I’m getting a few rounds every now and then like today where it was really rolling,â€� Cink said. He made nearly 120 feet of putts. … Phil Mickelson, who has three top-three finishes in his last four starts in Memphis but has never won the FedEx St. Jude Classic, was frustrated with his play after hitting just five of 14 fairways on the way to a 1-under 71. “This is a successful day in the sense that it’s a round that I could have easily shot 3, 4, 5 over, but I got it under par,â€� he said. … Rickie Fowler, who was coming off a T2 at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, got off to a disastrous start. Beginning his round on the back nine, he made a double-bogey 6 at the 13th hole and a triple-bogey 7 at the 15th on the way to a 4-over 74. He hit just six of 14 fairways and has work to do just to make the cut. … CALL OF THE DAY SHOT OF THE DAY BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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THE OVERVIEW Club de Golf Chapultepec is in the heart of Mexico, but based on last year’s results, it may be the most European of courses on the PGA TOUR. Consider the leaderboard at the 2017 World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship: Although American Dustin Johnson was the winner, the next four finishers were from Europe. Of the top 10 players, six were from Europe, and of the 27 players who finished T25 or better, there were more Europeans (13) than Americans (12). That’s not a ratio we see very often on the PGA TOUR. The Open Championship, of course, may favor Europeans since it’s played in the United Kingdom and has more Europeans in the field. Obviously, World Golf Championships fields generally will have a higher ratio of Europeans than regular PGA TOUR events, since several of this week’s participants are regulars on the European Tour. Still, perhaps the Europeans have found their comfort zone in the high-altitude course in Mexico City. Of the 65 players in the field, 17 are from Europe – including seven from England. “It is a very European layout,â€� said Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, runner-up last year to Johnson. “Last year it just reminded us of playing in Italy or some of the courses that we play. And it wasn’t just me that played well last year, there were a lot of Europeans up there. “It just is a bit of a European layout, a bit (more) of an old-school golf course (than) ones we’re kind of used to playing a little bit. It’s still different, it’s still a long way above sea level and the greens are a bit (more) slopey than what we’re used to. So there are still differences that we don’t get but just the general feel of when you’re walking down the fairways and seeing the tee shots, it’s tree-lined, that is quite a European feel to it.â€� Ironically, one of Europe’s best players did not fare well in Mexico last year. England’s Justin Rose failed to break 70 in his four rounds, eventually finishing T38 – even though he ranked first in strokes gained: tee to green. He may enter this week as Europe’s hottest player, having won three times in his last eight starts to move to No. 5 in the world. (Spain’s Jon Rahm, at No. 2, is the highest-ranked European in the world.) Rose doesn’t subscribe to the theory that Chapultepec favors long hitters, despite Johnson’s success last year. “It shouldn’t be a golf course that really suits the long hitter,â€� he said. “I think it’s the kind of golf course that suits everybody and offers everybody the opportunity to play well. It’s very strategic, there’s a lot of wedges in hand for most of the field. Yeah, it’s about kind of just getting the ball in the hole this week. “Just from memory, you can be aggressive, you can try and take it over tree lines occasionally. But if you’re on your own, that works for a long hitter, but equally there’s a lot of risk with that as well. So game plan’s very important around here, but I think all types of players can find their way around the golf course.â€� All types of players from all parts of the world, that is. THREE PLAYERS TO PONDER Dustin Johnson Defending champ is the only player to complete the World Golf Championships Slam. Justin Thomas FedExCup champ was the 54-hole leader a year ago before shooting a disappointing 72 on Sunday. Justin Rose His last five wins have come in Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Turkey and Jakarta. THE FLYOVER The 388-yard 18th is not the shortest par 4 on the course – in fact, there are three par 4s on the front nine that are shorter – but it’s the shortest and easiest par 4 on the back nine, offering players a chance to make up ground with a closing birdie. A year ago, it played to a stroke average of 3.974. THE LANDING ZONE The most difficult hole at Chapultepec is the 525-yard eighth, which just so happens to be the longest par 4 on the course. With a stroke average of 4.359 last year, the hole ranked as the 12th most difficult of all 900 holes on the PGA TOUR last season. Just 24 birdies were made against 104 bogeys, 10 doubles and three others, with the tree-lined fairway and heavily guarded multi-tiered green adding to the challenge. Here is where all tee shots landed last year. WEATHER CHECK From PGA TOUR meteorologist Wade Stettner: “The weather pattern from Thursday through Sunday calls for sunny skies each morning with scattered thunderstorms each afternoon. Thunderstorms tend to develop after 4 p.m. in the mountains to our west and drift in the direction of the upper-level winds. Temperatures will be seasonal this week, with highs in the upper 70s each day and overnight lows in the 50s.â€�  For the latest weather news from Mexico City, check out PGATOUR.COM’s Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK “I like the course, it’s a fun little track. The course reminds me a lot of the Web(.com Tour) events I played down in South America. I played well in some of those, so I kind of have hopefully those good vibes and just got to hopefully get some more this week.â€� BY THE NUMBERS 7,835 – Altitude, by feet, of the highest point at Chapultepec. The lowest point is 7,603 feet. The course has the highest altitude of any on the PGA TOUR – nearly 2,000 feet higher than Montreux Golf & Country Club in Reno, Nevada. 77 – Number of hole-outs at last year’s WGC-Mexico Championship. That’s the most of any single event in the history of the World Golf Championships. 317.47 – Average distance (by yards) of tee shots at Chapultec last year when using a driver. That was the highest average using a driver of any course on TOUR last year. 528 – Scorecard yardage for the third hole at Chapultepec. Just two other par-4 holes were longer on the PGA TOUR last season – the 17th at Kapalua (549 yards) and the fourth at TPC Four Seasons (529 yards). SCATTERSHOTS Jordan Spieth has not won in his last 13 worldwide starts. That’s his longest drought since the 37 worldwide starts in between his first professional win at the 2013 John Deere Classic and his next win at the 2014 Australian Open. Here are the driving-distance leaders from last year’s event, broken down by club used: Driver (Rory McIlroy at 350.34 yards); Fairway wood (Justin Thomas at 333.52 yards); Iron (Dustin Johnson at 285.13 yards). Six players are making their World Golf Championships debuts this week – Mexico’s Abraham Ancer, Spain’s Jorge Campillo, South Africa’s Dylan Frittelli, Australia’s Wade Ormsby, England’s Chris Paisley and India’s Shubhankar Sharma. There are two fully-exempt players from Mexico on the PGA TOUR – Abraham Ancer (who was born in Texas but raised in Reynosa, Mexico) and Roberto Diaz (born in Veracruz). A year ago, Diaz finished T67, but he is not in the field this week. Ancer is in the field this week as the world’s highest-ranked golfer from Mexico.

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