Rookies take lead at calm Honda
Gribble, Bryan each shoot 6-under 64; one up on Kaymer, Lahiri
One reason Martin Kaymer enjoys the Honda Classic is because he doesn’t feel as though he has to make a bunch of birdies.
On such a serene Thursday at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, that was required to keep pace.
A pair of PGA Tour rookies who last played this course at Q-school for the Web.com Tour, Cody Gribble and Wesley Bryan, each opened with a 6-under 64 in the morning and it stood the rest of the day. The wind never really materialized. The greens remained soft from a big rain the day before.
More than half of the field was at par or better.
Kaymer, a two-time major champion from Germany playing on a sponsor exemption, chipped in from behind the 17th green for birdie and closed with a two-putt birdie from 40 feet for a 65. He was one shot behind, along with Anirban Lahiri of India.
“I felt very calm over the ball,” Kaymer said. “It was very soft and there was not much wind,” he said. “Once you miss the fairway, it was actually OK from the rough because the greens are soft. I’ve not played the golf course in easier conditions.”
Rickie Fowler and Ian Poulter found it the same way. They were part of a large group at 66. Sergio Garcia was headed in that direction until he pulled his tee shot left on the par-3 fifth hole and made double bogey, added a pair of other bogeys and recovered with a birdie on his final hole for a 68. He was in the group with defending champion Adam Scott.
It was an important start for Poulter, who is playing on a medical extension from a foot injury last year and has only six PGA Tour events left to earn either $220,301 or 154 FedEx Cup points to retain his full status.
“I’m on borrowed time,” said Poulter.
Bryan is coming off his best tournament, a tie for fourth at Riviera in which he got within two shots of Dustin Johnson toward the end of the third round. It took him awhile to get going in warm, calm weather, and he finished with a 30 on the front nine.
Gribble already has won this season at the Sanderson Farms Championship last fall while the top players were in Shanghai.
LPGA: AriyaJutanugarn andAmyYang both shot 6under 66 in the first round to take a share of the lead at the LPGA Thailand.
Jutanugarn, a Thai ranked second in the world, had six birdies while Yang, the 2015 champion, had seven birdies and a bogey at the Siam Country Club Pattaya Old Course.
Ryann O’Toole, Sei Young Kim, Minjee Lee and Shanshan Feng were a stroke behind the leaders.
Top-ranked Lydia Ko (70) had five birdies and three bogeys, while former No. 1 Inbee Park shot a 72 in her first action since winning the Olympic gold medal last year.
“I don’t feel much of the injury anymore,” said Park, the winner in Pattaya in 2013. “Ball-striking was really good today. Just around the greens wasn’t as sharp as I wanted. Obviously that’s just going to happen.”