After the first day at Cherry Hills Country Club in Englewood, Colorado, the lead is shared between Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Gary Woodland. The second round is scheduled to begin on Friday at 11:20 a.m. ET, but a few players still have to finish their round that was suspended yesterday.
McIlroy teed off on the tenth hole on Thursday with Deutsche Bank Championship winner Chris Kirk and The Barclays victor Hunter Mahan. Going into his 16th hole, the No. 1 golfer in the world was five-under par but dropped to three-under after bogeys on holes seven and eight (16 and 17 for the day). Jordan Spieth did the opposite and holed two birdies on his 15th and 16th holes to grab a share of the lead. Gary Woodland had four birdies and a bogey on the day to join McIlroy and Spieth.
The last significant PGA Tour event in Colorado was back in 2006 during The International, which consequently ended after that tournament. Some of the players, typically not used to playing in Colorado, had some interesting things to say after their first round. Phil Mickelson is familiar with Cherry Hills, which was the site of his U.S. Amateur victory back in 1990.
"It's really fun," he said, in this GolfChannel.com article. "What I really like about Cherry Hills is that the easy holes are easy. You can make birdies on the reachable holes. They have some of the hardest holes anywhere. The fifth hole is one of the hardest par 4s you'll ever see. The 8th hole is like a 285-yard par 3. It's a long beast of a hole."
"The altitude, we've had a couple of days to adjust to that. It's fine," said McIlroy, in this ESPN article. "But these greens have gotten so much firmer over the last 24 hours. I think that's what is giving the guys just a little trouble out there."
Woodland's score perhaps would have been better if it weren't for the firm greens. The 30-year-old hit 83.3% of his greens in regulation compared to 61.1% for McIlroy and 55.6% for Spieth, but Woodland averaged 1.9 putts per green in regulation while McIlroy (1.7) and Spieth (1.4) saw an advantage in that department. Woodland will need to improve his short game if he wants to maintain the lead, while Martin Kaymer (-2), Russell Henley (-2), Graham DeLaet (-2), Sergio Garcia (-2), Henrik Stenson (-2), Justin Rose (-1), Jim Furyk (E), Phil Mickelson (E) and Bubba Watson (E) are close behind.
Henrik Stenson, Camilo Villegas, Jerry Kelly, Tim Clark, William McGirt, Morgan Hoffmann, Ben Crane, Charl Schwartzel, and Graeme McDowell still have at least one hole to finish after play was suspended late yesterday because of inclement weather.
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