Four to the fore
Davis shoots eight birdies to share lead with three Americans
Australia’s Cameron Davis fired a seven-under 64 to share the lead with Americans Harris English, Kevin Streelman and Russell Henley after the opening round of the US PGA Northern Trust.
Davis, chasing his first US PGA title, made eight birdies against a lone bogey on his penultimate hole to join the US pack atop the leaderboard in the FedEx Cup playoff opener at TPC Boston on Thursday.
“My game suits this place pretty well,” the 25-year-old from Sydney said. “We’ve got to hit our irons well. I felt like all I had to do was play a nice solid round of golf.
“I was able to get a few more putts to go in and that’s nice to see. Nice to finally get a low one.”
Davis opened and closed the back side, his opening nine holes, with back-to-back birdies on putts inside six feet and added a 12-foot birdie putt at 14.
The Aussie added 21-foot birdie putts at the par-five second and parfour sixth but found brush at the par-three eighth and took a bogey.
“You just have to plot your way around,” Davis said. “Being aggressive is just going to bring in bigger numbers.”
The top 70 players in season points advance from Boston to next week’s BMW Championship with only the top 30 going from there to the season-ending Tour Championship next month at East Lake.
English and Streelman are in the top 30 but Davis is 91st and Henley 10 more spots back, needing big wins to advance.
Streelman had three sets of backto-back birdies and holed out for eagle from 148 yards in the fairway at the par-four 15th.
“It was pretty fun,” Streelman said. “I hit a 9-iron that was going right at the hole ... I walked up and I didn’t see the ball, said maybe it went in and I pulled the ball out.”
Henley’s bogey-free round saw him close with an eagle and two birdies in the last four holes. He birdied the par-four 15th and 17th from just over six feet then dropped his second shot at the par-five 18th only inches from the cup.
“It felt like the game came to me for sure,” Henley said. “I was happy to finish that way.”
English, who won his only two PGA titles in 2013 at the St Jude Classic and the Mayakoba Classic, eagled the par-5 second from 97 yards in the fairway then birdied three and four.
English ran off four straight birdies starting at the par-three 11th and including a 41-foot putt at 13. he answered a bogey at 17 with a tap-in birdie at 18.