Rahm sets out intentions as he closes in on Cantlay’s lead
ATLANTA — The Catch Patrick Cantlay Sweepstakes has well and truly begun at East Lake. There was much jostling for position and cutting in line behind the assigned Tour Championship leader on Thursday.
They all were in such neat rows entering the PGA Tour’s playoff finale and its eccentric staggered scoring system.
Cantlay at 10 under by virtue of his points lead, a two-shot lead over the next lucky soul. With the other 28 players knowing their place and assigned their lane.
Cantlay will take a lead — still two strokes — into today’s second round, shooting a 3-under 67 in Round 1 to go 13 under for the tournament. Then it gets jumbled.
Shooting the day’s low round — 65, to go to 11 under overall — Jon Rahm took over the second spot from Tony Finau, who dropped all the way to eighth with his first-round 72. In this traffic, you snooze, you lose.
Harris English made the most daring move of the day, scoring a hole-in-one on the waterpark ride that is No. 15 and canning birdies on the next two holes to shoot 66 and get to third at 8 under. Viktor Hovland passed on the shoulder, swerved back into traffic, tailgated like he was in tow and went all the way from a starting position of 13th to fifth by virtue of a 66 of his own.
The one player who held his ground was the one thought to be the most reckless. Bryson DeChambeau started in third and stayed there, having shot a come-from-behind 69 to stand with English at 8 under.
In light of all the recent hubbub over fan behaviour, the fans at East Lake were quite hospitable to the occasionally beleaguered DeChambeau. The course, however, seemed to be in a mood to mistreat him early.
No word yet whether PGA Tour officials considered ordering the second and third holes removed from the property after they inflicted back-to-back bogeys upon him. The water of East Lake itself misbehaved badly, drowning DeChambeau’s tee ball at the 15th. And it wouldn’t be a surprise if the greenside bunker at No. 9 that suckered him in and short-sided him had been put on warning. But after a close of three consecutive birdies, DeChambeau and East Lake made amends.
Rahm established his intentions early, chipping in from 37 yards out after his approach from a fairway bunker landed short. Then, Rahm rolled a lovely 46-foot putt down a winding, tricky slope that did everything but fall in. “I think it’s easy to just think of the chipin, but I think the long putt on two helped as well,” Rahm said.
“You get a chip-in, it’s a bonus. Then on two, I leave myself not in the easiest spot — a long putt downhill with good 10 to 12 feet of break — and I almost make it with perfect pace. Knowing that I have the pace of the greens, it kind of gives me a little bit of a bonus feel.”
Rahm said he gave not a passing thought to beginning Thursday four back of Cantlay. “I was just trying to post a score,” he said.
His deficit is 50 per cent less now after one day. A very positive trend for him.