Shane Lowry's 29 for inward half sets Sawgrass record
Jason Day sets pace with a 63 at Sawgrass
Aussie Jason
Day lived up to his World No 1 billing by firing a first-round, nine-under-par 63 at TPC Sawgrass today, equalling the Players' Championship's lowest ever round.
Day, 28-years-old, hit 15 greens in
regulation. He wasn't that far off on the three that he missed either,
using the putter from the fringe on each occasion.
Jason Day in full flow (Getty Images(c)
Strangely enough, Day's driving was nothing special. He hit just eight fairways, well below the field's average in the round. Day found just eight fairways on
Thursday, well below the field's average in the round. At the time of writing, 17 players had returned scores of 67 or better on a wind-free day at Ponte Vedra. Day leads by two shots from five players, including Irishman Shane Lowry (36-29) and Englishman Justin Rose who hit all 18 greens in regulation figures. Russell Knox started with a four-under 68, three shots fewer than the other Scot in the field, Martin Laird. Masters winner Danny Willett signed for a two-under 70 Rory McIlroy was level par after 14 holes. Day has missed the cut in three of his five appearances in the Players' championship . but he putted only 24 times today, including once to get out of a greenside bunker! Shane Lowry's 65 included a sizzling
course-record, back-nine of 29. One day earlier, during his practice round, Lowry said he had a
“meltdown” in the midst of playing the same nine that he would go on to
torch today. “I almost wasn’t looking forward to the week,” said Lowry, the winner of the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Lowry credited a tip from Graeme McDowell with setting his putting straight. “I was just getting a little over the ball, a little too close, and he
just told me move it an inch away from where it is and see how it feels
then. And for some reason it just felt like it was easier to see my
lines,” Lowry said.
Lowry canned a 36-foot birdie putt at the 10th, pitched in for
eagle-3 from 25 feet left of the flag at the 11th and converted short
birdies at Nos. 12 and 13 to cap off a 5-under, four-hole stretch. A
tap-in birdie at the par-5 16th followed by a 13-foot birdie at 18
completed a record-low back nine. (Fifteen players had gone as low as
30 in previous years.)
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