Jordan Spieth walks off the 18th hole Thursday after finishing his 7-under 63 in the first round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tenn. Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal via AP
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — 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 63 on Thursday for a one-shot lead in the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Spieth chipped in for eagle and made a key par putt on the 17th 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. Storms dumped 2 inches of rain in the early morning that caused a delay of just over two hours. 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 dropped him to a 64.
“I didn’t want to get myself dirty,” Kim said. “Just don’t like it. I’ve had a really bad week once this year, so just trying to stay away from it, really.”
It was more like one bad day for Kim at Oak Hill for the PGA Championship. He went into a marshy area to look for his tee shot, slipped, and emerged with his shirt and pants covered in mud.
Kim is packing light for the three-week stretch of FedEx Cup playoffs.
“I had to make sure I was able to use those pants for a really long time, so I had to make sure they stayed really clean,” he 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.
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. 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 No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, who each posted a 67. Scheffler was 2 over early but responded with six birdies over his last 12 holes.
“It’s frustrating obviously when you see everybody is making birdies and you’re 2 over through four or five holes,” Scheffler said. “It was frustrating, but hung in there nicely and played some really good golf after that.”
LPGA: Ally Ewing made eagle from 5 feet at the par-5 16th and shot a 4-under 68 for the solo lead in the Women’s British Open at Walton-on-the-Hill, England.
Ranked No. 39, Ewing missed the cut in two of the previous three majors, and her most recent top-10 finish in the biggest events 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 U.S. Open champion from 2019, who is No. 94 in the world 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. Only Yang is in the world’s top 50.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
