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The PGA Tour resumed play on Thursday in Memphis, Tennessee as 66 of the world’s best teed it up at TPC Southwind. In what will be the last WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, running for a three-year period and becoming a FedEx Cup Playoffs event next season, players took advantage of the calm conditions in Round 1.
Firing out of the gates most noticeably was Harris English. A winner at TPC Southwind in 2013, the two-time winner this season got off to a dream start. Starting his round with four consecutive birdies, English would tack on three more before making the turn. A front-nine, 7-under 28 got golf fans buzzing about the possibility of a 59.
However, the former Georgia Bulldog quickly put those aspirations to bed with bogeys on the par-4 10th and the par-4 12th. Stalling in the middle part of his back-nine, English got back on track with birdies on the par-4 15th, the par-5 16th, and the closing 18th. Coming home in 1-under, English put together a round of 8-under 62 on Thursday to grab the first-round lead over a number of other players.
Those would include Jim Herman, Carlos Ortiz, Matthew Wolff, and Ian Poulter. Perhaps all, with the exception being Poulter, were surprising candidates to play well this week, albeit for different reasons. Herman, who will be defending his title next week at Sedgefield Country Club, had some of the longest betting odds entering the week. Ortiz was on the charter flight from Tokyo, where he finished his Olympic Games with a 7-over 78. Lastly there’s Wolff who questions inevitably surround, as he has played sparingly over the last few months.
Big names such as Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, and Viktor Hovland all struggled on Thursday, yet hope remains. With 54-holes to play, and no cut in sight, players of their caliber are hardly out of this tournament. They’ll need to put their best foot forward in tomorrow’s second round, but each has shown in the past the ability to go low when needed the most.
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Updated Odds to Win (Odds via PointsBet Sportsbook):
+500: Harris English
+750: Bryson DeChambeau
+1100: Scottie Scheffler
+1300: Daniel Berger
+1400: Collin Morikawa
+1600: Justin Thomas
+2000: Ian Poulter, Matthew Wolff
+2200: Carlos Ortiz
+2500: Louis Oosthuizen
+3000: Marc Leishman, Sam Burns
+3300: Will Zalatoris
+3500: Abraham Ancer, Corey Conners, Dustin Johnson
+4000: Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Jim Herman, Max Homa, Tyrrell Hatton
+5000: Hideki Matsuyama, Jason Kokrak, Paul Casey, Xander Schauffele
Round 2 Plays (Odds Via PointsBet):
Phil Mickelson (+194) over Matthew Fitzpatrick and Adam Scott
There was plenty of good and plenty of bad in Mickelson’s first-round. As is the case most days, Mickelson carded seven pars, six birdies, and five bogeys on Thursday. With a little bit of everything, I am hoping that Lefty will be able to clean up the mistakes in the second round.
Employing a new putting style, the arm-lock, Mickelson posted –1.33 Strokes Gained: Putting in Round 1. Still relatively fresh, I’d expect some improvement in that department as Mickelson is historically very comfortable on these greens. Tee-to-green it wasn’t fantastic, he was saved with his around-the-green play, but I have enough confidence in him bouncing back in a big way on Friday.
Even though Mickelson had a mixed bag on Thursday, he was still able to beat both Fitzpatrick and Scott. The duo ranked 61st and 65th in the field in SG: Tee-to-Green in the first-round. Fitzpatrick was still able to get home in even-par, thanks to his trusty putter, but Scott wasn’t so lucky, carding a 4-over 74. While I do expect Fitzpatrick to continue to putt well, it’s not enough for me to back him as the heavy favorite, especially considering his irons were quite poor in Round 1.
Martin Laird (+200) over Cameron Champ and Lucas Herbert
Having had a first-round leader ticket on Laird, I followed this group relatively close on Thursday. After opening with a pair of birdies, I was already counting my winnings, but then Laird started to find the water. Despite a couple of balls landing in the penalty areas throughout the day, the Scotsman was still able to card a round of 2-under 68.
Getting the better of Herbert by a single stroke and Champ by two-strokes, I like Laird to do something similar tomorrow. While his playing competitors didn’t strike the ball that poorly on Thursday, they couldn’t make anything on the greens. That’s typically Champ’s M.O. so I see that continuing into the second round, leaving Laird to deal with the Aussie. If Laird is able to keep those loose swings to a minimum and steer clear of trouble, then he should bring this one home as the heavy underdog.
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