(Ponte Vedra Beach) Chad Ramey shrugged off stress and bogeys to take charge of the PGA Players Championship on Thursday.
Ramey turned in 64 (minus-8), making him an unlikely point guard on the TPC Sawgrass course, which rarely fails to deliver an upset.
Ramey holds a one-shot lead over two-time major-tournament champion Collin Morikawa in rather mild conditions.
Ramey didn’t have as many problems as Aaron Wise, for example. The latter lost four balls in the space of two holes. The point guard was able to attempt a putt for a birdie on 16 of the 18 holes.
“I may have made it easy, but it wasn’t at all,” Ramey said. It was fun. This is the first score I have scored on such an emblematic course. You can’t ask for better. »
Ramey qualified for this tournament for the first time after triumphing in the Dominican Republic last year. He believes he can beat any golfer present at this event, while it is the best competition of the year on the PGA Tour so far.
His record wouldn’t suggest it, even if he won. In his 28 starts since winning, Ramey has missed the weekend rounds on 18 occasions and failed to finish in the top 20.
“I know the scores haven’t shown my game to be very close to being at my best, but I made a little adjustment to my momentum and it seems to be paying off,” Ramey said. I hit the ball where I wanted it for the majority of the day and when I was out of position I did a good job of getting back to the right spots. »
Morikawa has not been able to avoid the ax in two of his last three starts, which is rare for him. His shot to remember came on the second hole, his 11e of the day.
Morikawa landed a 4-iron shot and the ball came to rest three feet from the hole for an eagle. He didn’t commit any bogeys in the first round.
“I feel my game is very good and I’m just going to bring that for the next few days. I just want to use that momentum to hopefully play three more really good rounds,” he observed.
Canadian Taylor Pendrith and American Ben Griffin tied for third after posting a 67 card. Justin Suh also found himself in third place, but still had three holes to play when play was suspended due to the darkness.
Defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler led a six-man contingent to hit 68s, including Canadian Adam Hadwin. They are tied for the sixth rung.
Canadians Adam Hadwin (32e), Nick Taylor (94e), Corey Conners (109e) and Mackenzie Hughes (109e) also take part in the tournament.