Scottie Scheffler Among Large Group Tied for Lead at Colonial
The Charles Schwab Challenge has a stellar field on hand this year to take on Colonial Country Club and as usually occurs on great golf courses, the best players rose to the top.
Masters champion and current world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is part of an eight-way tie for first place at 4-under 66 after the first round in Fort Worth.
“I thought it played good,” Scheffler said. “The course is playing harder than it does in a typical year here. Yeah, I felt like I did a really good job of managing myself around the golf course. Anytime you make no bogeys, it’s going to be a good round.”
Scheffler’s round began on No. 10 and his tee shot on his second hole, the par-5 634 yard 11th hole went left and landed near the No. 12 green. Scheffler was able to scramble for par and get the momentum shifted in his favor.
“I tried to hit like a hard cut and I hit a draw, so that for starters is not good, and then it hit somewhere on that tent and went way left,” Scheffler said. “I don’t know if that’s a good break, bad — whatever it is, I got it back in the fairway, and I really could have made birdie from where I was. Thankfully it was a par-5, and I could hit another shot to get the ball back in play and have a chance to score on that hole.”
Webb Simpson, Patrick Reed, Beau Hossler, Harold Varner III, Chris Kirk, Nick Taylor and Cam Davis are tied with Scheffler after Thursday at Colonial. According to the PGA TOUR Communications, the eight-way tie for the 18 hole lead marks the most on the PGA Tour since nine at the 2011 Genesis Invitational and is the most in Charles sChwab Challenge history with the previous high being five in 1988.
Outside of the majors, the 4-under lead after the first round at Colonial marks the highest 18-hole lead since the 2020 BMW Championship which was 3-under. Since 1990, the first round leader/co-leader has won the Charles Schwab Challenge on three occasions, most recently Zach Johnson in 2012.
2016 Colonial champion Jordan Spieth had a roller coaster afternoon that included four birdies and three bogeys on his way to posting a 1-under first round.
“I was really frustrated for some reason. I didn’t play very smart early in the round, and then I kind of got away with it through five holes, and after being 2-under through five on this course, you get through the Horrible Horseshoe, and you’re at 2-under, you’re typically thinking four or more,” Spieth said. “A little bit upset. My three bogeys were all just poor bogeys. Otherwise I’m up there right near the top of the leaderboard. I think tomorrow with the wind being really low in the morning, I’m looking to take advantage of the golf course.”
Fan favorite Rickie Fowler is tied with Spieth at 1-under in a round that saw him birdie both par-5s.
“It was tricky,” Fowler said. “First handful of holes there wasn’t much wind. It started to kind of pick up, a little gusty at times, and then the rough, you get a lot of jumpers and it’s hard to control the ball from there. I felt like we did a pretty good job overall. Just a tricky day at Colonial.”
Justin Thomas, playing on the heels of winning last week’s PGA Championship, ended up 1-over after a double bogey on the par-3 13th after his tee shot landed in the water hazard short of the green.
