SOFT WIND, LOW SCORES AND AN ACE BY WORLD’S NO. 1

Jimmy Walker had reason to believe he was simply playing golf on vacation.

He was at Albany Golf Club, located at the far end of New Providence island with a tropical feel even without views of the ocean. The air was warm. The breeze was gentle. And there was hardly anyone watching him play golf.

But there were leaderboards around the golf course at the Hero World Challenge. And there were familiar names— plenty of them.

British Open champion Zach Johnson and Paul Casey joined Walker atop the leaderboard at 6-under 66. Right behind were defending champion Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, Brooks Koepka, Bill Haas and two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson.

GLAD TO BE HERE

Watson has been in the top 10 all year and usually plays in the Hero World Challenge. He didn’t enter this year, however,

“It feels pretty small,” Walker said. “But on a grand scale, it’s a big event with really good players.”

And all of them played really well. All but one player in the 18-man of top 50 players in the world ranking broke par. The exception was Hideki Matsuyama, who was 1 under playing the 18th hole until he made a quadruple-bogey 8 and posted a 75. because it moved from Florida to the Bahamas, and Watson didn’t have the documents necessarily to bring his newly adopted daughter, Dakota, with him.

He already was away from home two weeks in a row for the Asia swing. He’s playing Thailand next week, and didn’t want another two weeks without his entire family. Watson told the tournament to call him if someone pulled out and he would check on those documents.

Jason Day pulled out to stay at home with his newborn daughter. Watson’s wife went to Arizona to sort out the documents, and here he is. “We’re here legally,” he said. He soared into the lead with a 30-foot eagle putt, made double bogey on the 12th and then bounced back with three straight birdies and wound up with a 67.