Spieth stays clean with 63
He leads playoff opener by a shot
Jordan Spieth kept a clean card and clean pants, even without having to roll them up to his calves on a rain-soaked course. He opened with a 7-under-par 63 Thursday for a one-shot lead in the FedEx St. Jude Championship at Memphis.
Spieth chipped in for eagle and made a key par putt on the 17 th to take his first 18-hole lead on the PGA Tour since the Sony Open in January. He missed the cut the next day in Honolulu. That won’t be possible at the TPC Southwind — the 70-player field has no cut.
The start to the PGA Tour postseason was sloppy one. Storms dumped 2 inches of rain in the early morning that caused a delay of just over two hours and players were sent off on both sides. The greens were soft but fast. The TPC Southwind was soggy and muddy.
It was not the best day to be wearing white pants.
Tom Kim, who knows a little about mud, probably should have known better. He decided to roll up his pants to make them look like capris. He was briefly tied with Spieth until a late bogey sent him to a 64.
“I didn't want to get myself dirty,” Kim said.
Collin Morikawa had six birdies for a 65 to join Emiliano Grillo two shots behind. That's $6,000 for relief efforts from the Hawaii wildfires — he has pledged $1,000 per birdie during the playoffs. Morikawa’s grandparents were born in Lahaina and once had a restaurant on Front Street, which closed many years ago.
Jon Rahm had dirty pants and a scorecard to match. The No. 1 seed in the chase for the $18 million FedEx Cup bonus, he was going along fine until hitting his tee shot out of bounds on the par-5 16th hole and had to salvage a bogey. Two holes later, he drove into the water and nearly found the water again on his third shot at the 18th. That was a double bogey.
His front nine — Rahm started on No. 10 — wasn't much better with three bogeys that led to a 73. He ended with a three-putt bogey.
Rahm played alongside the next two top seeds, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, each posting a 67. Scheffler was 2 over early and responded with six birdies over his last 12 holes. Women’s British Open — The United States is seeking its third female major champion this week at Walton-On-The-Hill, England.
Few would have predicted Ally Ewing leading the charge.
Ewing made eagle from 5 feet at the par-5 16th to leapfrog a five-way tie for first place and parred the last two holes to shoot 4-under 68 for the solo lead at Walton Heath in the opening round of the year’s final major.
Ranked No. 39, Ewing missed the cut in two of the last three majors and her most recent top-10 finish in the biggest events in golf came at the Chevron Championship in early 2021.
Only one of the five players to shoot 69 is a former major winner — Jeongeun Lee6, the Women’s US Open champion from 2019 — and she has dropped to No. 94 in the rankings.
Also tied for second place were Emily Kristine Pedersen of Denmark, Perrine Delacour of France, Jaravee Boonchant of Thailand, and Amy Yang of South Korea. Of them, only Yang is in the world’s top 50. Boonchant is No. 148.
Allisen Corpuz, the US Women’s Open champion last month, was in a 12-way tie for seventh place on 2 under on a day many of the most celebrated players in the women’s game struggled.
Rose Zhang, the new American sensation who only turned pro this year, battled all day and got up-and-down for par from a greenside bunker at No. 18 to shoot 72. Top-ranked Nelly Korda and No. 2 ranked Jin Young Ko were 1 over.