Johnson cards 10 birdies, shoots 62
Zach Johnson embraced the pressure of being the US Ryder Cup captain last year, even if the experience didn’t go the way anybody on his team hoped.
A few months later, Johnson is past all the pressure and the second-guessing — and those newly lightened shoulders might have been a factor in his sizzling round to start The American Express.
Johnson made seven of his 10 birdies on the front nine on the way to a 10-under-par 62 and a share of the lead with Sweden’s Alex Noren after the first round at La Quinta, Calif., Thursday.
Johnson’s 29 on the front nine was the lowest nine-hole score in his 493 career PGA Tour starts, and he needed only 10 putts to do it. He credited his strong start partly to an offseason of focused preparation after his release from the demands of the Ryder Cup captaincy.
Rico Hoey and Christiaan Bezuidenhout are one shot back of the leaders, and 22 golfers shot 65 or better, including Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Australia’s Min Woo Lee and former champion Si Woo Kim.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler didn’t scorch La Quinta as thoroughly as some of his competitors, carding a 67 with three of his five birdies clustered around the turn. Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark each shot 70.
DP World Tour — Rory McIlroy and Brian Harman were cruising in the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic.
Then they came to their final stretch of holes.
The No. 2-ranked McIlroy bogeyed three of his last four to shoot 1-under 71 and Harman, the British Open champion who also started at the 10th hole, finished bogey-par-double to close on the same score.
The headline pair in the field were four strokes off the clubhouse lead held by Li Haotong, Andy Sullivan, Rasmus Hojgaard and Cameron Young when play was suspended because of darkness on Day 1 of one of the marquee events of the season on the European tour.
LPGA — Ayaka Furue made seven birdies in a round of 7-under 65, giving her a two-shot lead in the Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona in Orlando, Fla.
She finished two shots clear of Sweden's Maja Stark, who tied for second at this tournament last year; and Mexico’s Gaby Lopez, a past champion of the TOC.