Matt Wallace takes a one-stroke lead over Byron Nelson as defending champion Jason Day returns
McKinney: When Matt Wallace was relegated to watching the Masters during a self-described “terrible” season, he found himself thinking deeply about what makes the world's best golfers so good. .
When asked if Scottie Scheffler is one of the players he's keeping an eye on, Wallace was a little lost for words.
“Well, he is, but I mean, he's so good that it's hard to take too much away from him because he plays incredible golf,” Wallace said. “For others, it's not as realistic.”
Well, maybe Wallace can take advantage of the world No. 1 spot, which has him sidelined from tournaments in his hometown as he awaits the birth of his first child.
One-time PGA Tour winner Byron Nelson shot an 8-under 63 in the first round of the CJ Cup on Thursday, putting him one stroke ahead of seven players.
Taiga Semikawa, a 23-year-old from Japan playing on a sponsor exemption, made a 3 on the par-5 18th just before nine players were turned on after a round played on priority lies was halted due to darkness due to rainy weather. He made a putt for par and settled for a 64. course.
Taylor Pendrith, Alex Nolen, Cheson Hadley, Jake Knapp, Davis Riley and Kelly Craft were also 7 under at TPC Craig Ranch, just north of Scheffler's hometown of Dallas.
Defending champion Jason Day, without Scheffler, struggled to play in the same trio as local favorite Jordan Spieth, and was in a large group chasing a three-point lead. Spieth was 3 under.
Brad Hopfinger, 35, making his PGA Tour debut, was two shots behind Wallace along with Ben Coles, Alex Smalley and Hayden Buckley.
Wallace has missed the cut five times and hasn't finished in the top 10 in 11 tournaments this year, but he birdied five of his first six holes and capped off the lowest round of his career without a bogey with a tap-in birdie. Ta. 18th.
The 34-year-old Englishman played at Texas Tech, but the young Swede is one of 27 of the top 30 players to miss Nelson at the $20 million marquee event, the Wells Fargo Championship. I found myself taking mental notes about players like Ludvig Aberg. , and the PGA Championship will be held in the next two weeks.
“What I see from a lot of them, especially the players younger than me, I’m not that old, but guys younger than me, they’re very focused on their shots and the results. I'm not worried about the results or anything,''' said Wallace, who won in the Dominican Republic a little more than a year ago.
Day and Spieth both stumbled into bogeys on the par-5 14th hole of the day. Day had two birdies and one bogey on his final four holes, including the par-5 ninth. Spieth only made par on the last hole, going 1 over on the par-5.
“It's a very accessible golf course,” Spieth said. “I just played an easy hole poorly. That was kind of the story of the day.”
Spieth is looking for his first win in his 12th appearance since debuting as a 16-year-old amateur in 2010. While Spieth was making headlines, Day won his first PGA Tour victory, ending a five-year winning streak. Last year's win drought.
Spieth, 30, missed last year's game against Nelson due to a wrist injury. In 2022, he was the runner-up.
The start was delayed by an hour due to rain, which is forecast to continue into the weekend. Barring rain, players will be able to keep the wind to a minimum on the soft course that has produced the most birdies on tour in Nelson's four years as home.
“I'm not losing, but I certainly want to stay within two or three of the lead as I get through the first few rounds,” Spieth said. “The wind doesn't seem to be blowing much, so there will be a lot of players aiming for low scores, so we need to recover well.''
Raul Pereda made an ace on the 236-yard seventh hole and shot 68. Chris Kim, a 16-year-old from England whose Korean-born mother played on the LPGA tour in the 1990s, also scored an ace in her tour debut.
Kim, who played on a sponsorship exemption in Nelson's first year under the name of South Korean company CJ Group, chipped in for an eagle on No. 9, capping off an eventful round that included five birdies and four bogeys.
“I was definitely nervous the first few holes, but once I started riding, I was just playing golf,” said the undefeated Junior Ryder Cup winner last year and his first amateur, sponsored by CJ Group. One Kim said.
