Piercy, Fraser take early lead at Doral
The Big Three of Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy were rolling along quite nicely Thursday in the first round of the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral before faltering down the stretch.
Adam Scott, on the other hand, kept his hot hand going from last week’s victory in the Honda Classic. And Phil Mickelson continued to trend in the right direction.
On a breezy day at exacting TPC Blue Monster, some of the game’s biggest names took residence near the top of the eclectic leaderboard while more obscure Scott Piercy and Marcus Fraser took the lead with a pair of 6-under-par 66s.
Mickelson, who switched coaches in the offseason and re- worked his swing, came home with a 67. Scott, who held off Sergio Garcia by one shot to win up the road in the Honda, shot 68. World No. 4 Bubba Watson, who has finished in the top three here three of the last four years, shot 69. World No. 5 Rickie Fowler shot 70. Defending champion and world No. 8 Dustin Johnson shot 72.
Spieth, Day and McIlroy, the Nos. 1-3, respectively, were the talk of the tournament heading into the first round. But when cloud cover arrived midway through their round, the buzz and the galleries faded, as did their good play.
Spieth finished with a bogey for a 69, Day was scratching his head through most of his 72 strokes and McIlroy three-putted for par on his 17th hole and dumped his tee shot into the water on his 18th hole to finish with a 71.
“We were actually able to feed off each other on a very difficult golf course through the first 12 holes or so, and then each of us had a bit of a slip towards the end, and a little bit of a damper on the round, a little bummer on the round, but we’ll come back tomorrow and get off to a good start,” Spieth said.
McIlroy, who went left-hand low with his putting stroke, said he played solidly from tee to green and liked how he putted since it was the first time he put that stroke into play since 2008. But just as he did last week in missing the cut in the Honda, he made too many unforced errors, his last leading to a double-bogey 5 on his final hole.
“Just need to tidy it up a little bit,” McIlroy said. “The good stuff ’s in there. It’s just a matter of not hitting shots like the one I hit on (his last hole).”
Scott’s been hitting a lot of good shots lately. He just had to get his mind into the game in the first round.
“I took it real easy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and didn’t really turn the mind on at all,” Scott said. “Trying to enjoy what happened last week and save some energy for this week. … Then once I faced a couple tougher shots, made a bit of a (mess) of them. Quickly realized if that’s how I’m going to play, I’m probably going to shoot over par today, so I had to sharpen up a bit.”
Mickelson is starting to get his entire game sharp. While he has two top-three finishes in five starts this year, he hasn’t put everything together at the same time. With seven birdies offsetting two bogeys, he’s close.
“It was a good day. I hit a lot of good shots, and made some good putts, and just drove it well, enjoyed the day,” Mickelson said. “The only place I struggled last week were on the greens, reading them. So I knew I had been playing well, and you want to get off to a quick start so you don’t have to force the issue later on. And getting off to a 5-under round allows me to just go out and play the way I’ve been playing and not have to try to press the issue and go really low to get in contention for the weekend.”