After false start, Spieth shares lead
LOS ANGELES — One of the wildest pars Phil Mickelson ever made didn’t even count. Neither did one of the worst lies Jordan Spieth ever had.
Fifty minutes into the start of the Genesis Open, with only 30 players having teed off, the opening round was scrapped because of increasing rain that soaked Riviera and poor visibility that made it unusually tough on the earliest of starters.
Everyone started over after what amounted to a seven-hour delay, and Spieth made the most of his second chance.
He chipped in twice for birdie, made birdie on all three par-5s and was at 5-under par through12 holes. He was tied for the lead with Sung Kang, who was through 14 holes.
Tiger Woods never made it to the course. He was to play in the afternoon and faces a long day of as many holes as he can get in Friday in what now becomes a long, disjointed week trying to catch up. “Certainly got some good breaks,” Spieth said. None was bigger than the decision to restart the round. Spieth hit his tee shot on the short par-4 10th to the left, normally a good place to be except that his ball hit the cart path, hit it again, bounded across the forward tee at No. 11 and disappeared into shin-high grass so deep he could barely see his ball.
If he could have played from there, par would have been a challenge. And then the horn blew to suspend play because of wet conditions, and a few hours later, the PGA Tour thought it was best to scrap the round.
It was the first time in more than five years on the PGA Tour that a round started over.
The was great news to Spieth, who hit his tee shot left of the green near a tree, pitched to 15 feet and walked away with par. “Given I went cart path to cart path to junk on the first start today went from kind of being unfortunate to just fortunate,” he said.
Jimmy Walker (10 holes) and Patrick Rodgers (13 holes) were at 4 under. Mickelson was1over through 12 holes.