Honour and glory for those responsible for the renovation of the Caves Valles Golf Club. A great course. Tense, demanding, long, fast fairways, very hard greens. A true test. Just the right amount of indulgence. A course worthy of a FedEx Cup semi-final where the vast majority of the world’s best players gather.
But golf, as you know, is played outdoors and depends on Mother Nature. The capricious isobars decided that a heavy downpour would alter the natural course of the first day of the BMW Championship. Play was suspended when Scheffler and McIlroy, who played together, still had four holes left, MacIntyre had more than half a round to go, and Bud Cauley and Ludvig Aberg had barely been on the course for an hour. When the horn sounded, the tournament leader was Viktor Hovland (-3) with his round finished. Once play resumed, the lead moved to Robert MacIntyre’s -8, and up to four more players matched or bettered the Norwegian’s score: Fleetwood (-5), Scheffler (-4), Griffin (-3), and Fowler (-3).
The rain significantly eased the course conditions. It was longer, true, but the fairways suddenly became much wider, absolutely key, and the greens became more receptive, a relief for a layout that demands a lot of mid and long iron shots to the green. Moreover, as if by magic, and here there is no scientific explanation, it seemed that the holes turned into ball suckers. What a way to sink putts by MacIntyre, Scheffler, or Fleetwood. The scores of the three after the rain delay were -6, -2, and -3. Many more birdies were made in the last four hours of play than in the first six, just after the little more than two-hour suspension that the game suffered.
MacIntyre took the spotlight with an impressive streak of six consecutive birdies to finish his round. “I think I’ve never putted so well in my life over such a long stretch as in that last third of the round,” admitted the Scotsman proudly, giving all the credit in the world to Mike Kanski, his putting coach. The first leader has opened a significant gap in the standings and, in the process, reinforces the idea that he is more than ready to have a much more prominent role in the upcoming Ryder Cup at Bethpage.
Fleetwood has moved into second place, taking to the extreme the well-known sports maxim that what matters is not how many times you fall, but how many times you get up. The Englishman stands up, brushes the dust off his shoulders, and continues with his business. As if what happened four days ago at the FedEx St Jude Championship was nothing more than a distant memory. Bravo, Tommy.
Up there, -oh, surprise– Scottie Scheffler has already made his way. The World Number One made the most of the slight advantage given by the storm delay. A score of two under with birdies on 16 and 18. “Before the rain, I wouldn’t have been able to leave the ball so close on 16,” he confessed. On his last hole, he sank a great birdie putt of more than seven metres, just like MacIntyre or Fleetwood did.
Much credit must be given to Hovland’s score, who played his entire round in the worst conditions, as well as to Ben Griffin’s demonstration, for those who thought he was running out of steam, and to Rickie Fowler’s determined effort to be in the Tour Championship. The only player who completed his round was Bud Cauley (-1), who decided to leave a long birdie putt on 18 for Friday morning. Aberg, who played with him, did choose to finish.
Rory McIlroy (PAR) managed to level with the course after a very challenging start to the round, with a score of two over with three bogeys in six holes. “It was a horrible start,” said the Northern Irishman without too many excuses. He did it all before the suspension. He wasn’t able to take advantage of his last four holes, although he putted each time for birdie.
Regarding the top 30 projection to play at East Lake, there are three movements after the first day. Rickie Fowler, Michael Kim, and Jason Day would get in, and Jacob Bridgeman, Akshay Bhatia, and Lucas Glover would drop out.
