Rahm, Thomas tied at Northern
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Jon Rahm returned from a month off and played like he was never gone. Justin Thomas took the advice of a 15-year-old and had his lowest score of the year.
Both opened with an 8-under 63 on Thursday at The Northern Trust as the PGA Tour’s postseason began with no shortage of bizarre developments.
Rahm, who missed his chance at the Olympics because of what amounts to a false positive test result for COVID-19, expected a little rust in his game. It just didn’t show on his card. He chipped in for birdie, saved par on the next two holes and was on his way.
Thomas had benched his putter for bad behavior after he spent too much of the year not seeing putts go in the hole. But during his junior event last week, a teenager asked why he wasn’t using his old putter.
“And I found myself defending myself to this 15-year-old,” he said. “I was like, ‘Why am I not using this thing?’ It’s not like I’m making a lot of putts with what I have. If you’re putting well, any of us can go out and putt with anything.”
He didn’t hole all of them, but enough to record nine birdies for his lowest round since a 62 last November in Mexico.
Harold Varner III had a 66 in the morning, boosting his postseason chances. He is No. 72 in the FedEx Cup standings, and only the top 70 after this week advance to the next tournament.
The six players at 67 included Adam Scott (No. 82), Robert Streb (No. 68) and Mackenzie Hughes (No. 67).
Korda shares lead at LPGA’s British
Two weeks after winning a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, topranked Nelly Korda began her bid for a second major title by shooting 5-under 67 in the first round to share the clubhouse lead at the Women’s British Open in Carnoustie, Scotland.
She was tied for the lead with Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom.
The only player in the clubhouse within three strokes of the joint leaders was Japan’s Nasa Hataoka, who shot 70.