September 18, 2015: Golf is bathing in a flood of riches and the first round of the BMW Championship was yet another reminder of the quality of the men at the top of the game. Even as thunderstorms disrupted play at Conway Farms, Jason Day fired a 346 yard tee shot into the light rough off the 9th green. If he can come back on Friday and find the pin from 44 yards, we could be reporting a rare 59. Meanwhile, Jordan Spieth seems to have put his recent troubles firmly behind, with a confident 5-under effort through 17 holes.
Day was in irrepressible form, firing seven birdies on his card and an eagle, when he flew out of a fairway bunker straight into the cup from 79 yards out.
“I thought it was a par 72, so I’m sitting there going, `10 under, there’s no chance at all I can get it.’ But if it goes in, it goes in,” Day said, acknowledging that he did not realise that a 59 was on. “Right now, I’m just trying to play the best I can. I’m just trying to get off to a good start.”
Day is trying to make it four victories in his last six starts, a run that included the PGA Championship and the Barclays that kicked off the FedexCup playoffs. Still needing to finish the 18th, Day has a four shot advantage over PGA Tour rookie Daniel Berger, who shot 6-under 65 in his first round.
“No matter what you do, even if you hit a bad shot, it’s going to be all right,” Day said. “That’s kind of the way it feels. It’s hard to explain because I’m just out there and I’m not really paying attention to the score and I’m hitting it down the middle and hitting it on the greens and holing putts.”
Having struggled to make an impact since his second place finish at the final major of the season, Spieth appeared to have put himself back on the rails. The American’s round was made special by a hole-in-one on the the par-3 second hole. That and a chipped birdie from 80 feet on the third hole, signalled his return to form.
The other star in the three ball, Rickie Fowler, was made to look like a side show. The winner two weeks ago at TPC Boston was only one under through 17, despite four straight birdies on his front nine.
Jim Furyk withdrew from the tournament after just six holes, citing a wrist injury. When Day returns on Friday he will seek to emulate Furyk’s 59, the last of six on the PGA Tour, which also came at Conway Farms in 2013.
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