Yesterday was like November 2020 all over again, as Im Sung-jae, Cameron Smith and Dustin Johnson grouped at the top of the leader board. There were also shades of 2016, as Danny Willett put his post-win Augusta woes behind him with a 69. Thoughts also turned to 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019, as Tiger Woods blah blah … you’ve heard word , I’m sure.
There were a few disappointments too, though. Some of the big pre-tournament picks didn’t really show yesterday – Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm – and plenty of those big names are going out this morning, already requiring something in the 60s to get back into contention. Some have games in decent nick to fall back on, some less so.
But it’s only Friday, so the tournament is still taking shape. Much will be turned upside down by the end of play today. Here’s how the top of the leader board looks…
-5: Im
-4: Smith
-3: Willett, Niemann, Scheffler, D Johnson
-2: Kokrak, Conners, Cantlay
-1: Higgs, Na, Berger, Woods, Finau, Simpson, Varner III, Zalatoris, Fitzpatrick
… and here’s when everyone’s teeing off today (USA unless stated, all times BST,
-a- denotes amateurs). We’ll get going at 3pm BST. It’s on!
13.00 Stewart Hagestad -a-, Sandy Lyle (Sco)
13.11 Cameron Champ, Lucas Glover, Erik van Rooyen (Rsa)
13.22 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Cameron Davis (Aus), Bernhard Langer (Ger)
13.33 Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Laird Shepherd (Eng) -a-
13.44 Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Justin Rose (Eng), Gary Woodland
13.55 Corey Conners (Can), Russell Henley, Lee Westwood (Eng)
14.06 Lucas Herbert (Aus), Seamus Power (Irl), Patrick Reed
14.17 Tom Hoge, Keita Nakajima (Jpn) -to-, Bubba Watson
14.39 Sung Jae Im (Kor), Marc Leishman (Aus), Webb Simpson
14.50 Sergio Garcia (Spa), Thomas Pieters (Bel), Harold Varner III
15.01 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Sam Burns, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng)
15.12 Billy Horschel, Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa
15.23 Patrick Cantlay, Jon Rahm (Spa), Will Zalatoris
15.34 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth
15.45 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy (NIrl)
15.56 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa), JJ Spaun
16.18 Austin Greaser -to-, Padraig Harrington (Irl), Mike Weir (Can)
16.29 Larry Mize, Francesco Molinari (Ita), Sepp Straka (Aut)
16.40 Fred Couples, Garrick Higgo (Rsa), Guido Migliozzi (Ita)
16.51 Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor), Ryan Palmer, Vijay Singh (Fij)
17.02 Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Hudson Swafford, Cameron Young
17.13 Stewart Cink, Brian Harman, Harry Higgs
17.24 Aaron Jarvis (Cay) -a-, Zach Johnson, Si Woo Kim (Kor)
17.35 Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Luke List, Matthew Wolff
17.57 Talor Gooch, Jason Kokrak, Danny Willett (Eng)
18.08 Max Homa, Shane Lowry (Irl), Kevin Na
18.19 Daniel Berger, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Kevin Kisner
18.30 Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith (Aus)
18.41 Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Tiger Woods
18.52 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), James Piot -to-, Justin Thomas
19.03 Tony Finau, Scottie Scheffler, Adam Scott (Aus)
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism