Streb leads day of low scoring in CJ Cup
LAS VEGAS — Robert Streb went from making putts to wondering if he would ever miss Thursday in the CJ Cup at Summit. It led to his best start to any tournament and his lowest score on the PGA Tour.
And on this day at The Summit Club, his 11-under 61 was only good for a oneshot lead.
A world-class field lit up a very pretty and mostly defenseless golf course overlooking the Las Vegas Strip. The result was the lowest average score — 68.95 — for the opening round on the PGA Tour all year.
Streb had 10 birdies and an eagle and led by one shot over Keith Mitchell, who had more birdies than pars in matching his low round with a 62. Harry Higgs was at 64, while the group at 65 included Sergio Garcia and Viktor Hovland.
Such scoring in ideal conditions was what players were expecting on this Tom Fazio desert course, and Streb wasted little time proving it.
He started with a pair of 6-foot birdie putts and followed with a 12-footer for
eagle. When he walked off the par-5 sixth hole after a long two-putt for birdie, he already was 7-under par.
“I’ve never had a start like that, so it was kind of fun,” Streb said. “I was trying to stay in the moment the best I can, and I don’t know. You just feel like you can start aiming at stuff. Things seemed to be going my way.”
Streb broke by two shots his previous low score on
the PGA Tour, one of those 63s in the PGA Championship at rain-soaked Baltusrol in 2016.
But while low scores were plentiful — 25 players at 67 or lower — so was trouble if anything left the emerald green fairways.
Consider how it must have felt for Justin Rose. Two holes into the tournament, he already was 10 shots behind.
Rose came up short of
the par-3 second green into a native area of mostly rocks and some sand. He tried to play it and the ball ricocheted off a stone wall into a desert bush. His only option was to take a penalty drop — but where? Going back on a line with the hole, he found a fairly sparse area only to duff it toward the wall and more rocks. After another penalty drop, he got up-and-down for a quadruple-bogey 7.