Stenson, Rahm tied for lead in the Bahamas
NASSAU, Bahamas — In his first trip to the Hero World Challenge, it didn’t take Jon Rahm long to figure out how to score.
Being aggressive starts with keeping the ball in play. And with five par 5s and a pair of reachable par 4s at Albany Golf Club, plenty of birdies should be available. That was the case Friday, when Rahm made birdies on half of his holes for a 9-under 63 to share the lead with Henrik Stenson, who had a 66.
“I hit it so solid off the tee, I was always in the fairway with a short club in,” Rahm said. “I think the best way to describe it, having five par 5s and two relatively short par 4s, out of those seven holes I got six birdies. So I capitalized on the easier holes today. Didn’t seem like much could go wrong.”
Only the end went wrong for tournament host Tiger Woods, and it could have been worse.
Woods was 5 under for his round and trying to stay in the thick of his holiday event when he drove into a palm bush on the 18th hole. He dropped to one knee to pop the ball back to the grass, came up just short of the green, chipped weakly and made double bogey for a 69.
But questions arose about this shot out of the bush.
After extensive video review, it was determined he hit the ball more than once. However, because of an 18-month-old rules decision that limits the use of video evidence, Woods was spared the additional penalty because he didn’t think he made contact twice and it couldn’t be determined by the naked eye, only the use of high resolution TV played in super slow motion.
“Looking at in the regular speed on a high definition television, you couldn’t tell that at all,” said Mark Russell, the PGA Tour’s vice president of rules and competition. “But when slowed it down to ultra-slow motion, high definition television, you could see where the club did stay on the clubface quite a bit of time, and it looked like he might have hit it twice. But there’s no way he could tell that.”
Even so, Woods remained eight shots behind in his first 72-hole event since ending his remarkable comeback year with a victory in the Tour Championship. He was tied for 14th, along with Patrick Reed, who shot 40 on the front nine on his way to a 77.
Patrick Cantlay, who shared the 18-hole lead with Reed, had a 70 and was one shot out of the lead along with Dustin Johnson, who had a 67 in a tropical spot where he loves to vacation but rarely contends.