CROMWELL, Conn. — Before the first tee shots of the Travelers Championship were hit at 6:45 am Thursday by Bryan Palmer, Will Gordon and Taylor Pendrith, we knew there would be plenty of low scores shot at TPC River Highlands. There always are, and with little wind forecasted, scoring conditions appeared to be prime once again for PGA Tour stars like Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and defending champion Xander Schauffele.
And score they did, Keegan Bradley set the early pace with a 62 after making birdies on the first five holes he played. In the afternoon wave, Adam Scott was 9 under with two holes to play, then hit his approach to the 17th green into the pond en route to a double-bogey. The Australian bounced back by draining a 20-foot birdie putt on 18 for 62 shortly after Scottie Scheffler completed his round of 63.
But as play neared an end Thursday, Denny McCarthy finished torching the 6,852-yard TPC River Highlands by shooting a bogey-free 60 to take sole possession of the overnight lead.
Travellers: Photos
More than 600 birdies were made Thursday, which not only helped McCarthy, Bradley, Scott and Scheffler, but also explained three 64s, eight 65s and 12 66s.
So what are we supposed to make of this birdie barrage? Here are five takeaways from the opening round of the 2023 Travelers Championship.
Inches away from 59
No one should be frustrated with a 60, but Denny McCarthy could be because the 30-year-old from Rockville, Maryland, was a few inches away from shooting the PGA Tour’s second 58, which would have matched Jim Furyk’s record-setting score posted at this course in 2016.
McCarthy, who ranks fourth on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting, hit a fantastic birdie putt from 38 feet away out on the eighth hole (his 17th). It tracked directly at the hole before stopping just 10 inches away. That would have taken him to 10 under with one hole remaining.
On the ninth hole, his last of the day, McCarthy’s approach shot from 167 out bounced off a mound on the right side of the green, then trundled directly towards the flag. The ball rolled over the right edge of the cup and stopped just over 4 feet away, setting up McCarthy’s 10th birdie of the day and an opening-round 60.
“We’ve played some hard golf courses the last few weeks. My last two events have been US Open and Memorial, so coming into a place that doesn’t quite beat you up as much, it’s a little bit of a mindset change,” McCarthy said afterwards. “It was nice to know from the start that it was possible. The back nine here is one of my favorite nine holes on Tour. It’s very risk-reward. If you’re playing well, you can shoot 5 or 6 under. If you’re not playing well, it can beat you up. I like the back nine a lot, so I came out firing and was playing really well to start.”
Scottie Scheffler’s consistency continues
Scottie Scheffler’s putter has been ice cold this season, and maybe that’s a good thing for the rest of the PGA Tour, because every other aspect of his game has been clicking, and after an opening-round 63, he is once again near the top of the leaderboard.
“I just kept the golf course in front of me. That’s pretty much it,” Scheffler said, modestly. “I didn’t drive it as well as I would have hoped to today, but outside of that, I didn’t put myself in any really horrible spots.”
On the day, Scheffler made seven birdies and no bogeys, and he is solo fourth going into Friday’s second round at the Travelers Championship.
Since finishing T-45 at the CJ Cup last October, Scheffler’s worst finish in a PGA Tour event has been T-12 at the Genesis Invitational. He has two wins and 14 top 10s in his last 17 events, and nothing about his performance on Thursday would lead anyone to think he won’t be in the mix on Sunday.
Wyndham Clark is in a whirlwind
Major championships are physically and mentally draining, which is why Jon Rahm typically doesn’t play the week after a major. The Spaniard said on Tuesday that he’s in the field this week at the Travelers Championship because it’s an elevated event, and otherwise, he would have taken the week off.
US Open champion Wyndham Clark did not get to TPC River Highlands until Wednesday afternoon because he was bombarded with media requests and opportunities, but he’s here.
“You know, some of the calls and texts that I got were pretty amazing from some pretty influential people,” he said after signing for 68 Thursday. “Being on the Today Show and Good Morning America and ESPN and Fox News and all the things I went to, was awesome. Then running into some big-time celebrities who knew who I was and wanted to take a picture with me, rather than vice versa.”
There is no rule that required Clark to play in this event, and no one would have held it against him if he had withdrawn. His life changed on Sunday. But Clark played his first PGA Tour event at the 2017 Travelers Championship after receiving a sponsor’s exemption, so he showed up and shot 2-under 68.
Understandably, Clark said the media tour in New York City and the attention he has received since winning at Los Angles Country Club overshadowed his preparations for this event.
“I hit some pretty poor wedge shots today. I probably shot the worst score I could have today,” he said, “You know, I drove it pretty decent and had some really good opportunities to make birdies, so I would say there is a little bit of brain fog there.”
This could be a lost summer for Justin Thomas
Justin Thomas missed the cut at the Masters, tied for 65th at the PGA Championship in May, and then missed the cut at the Memorial Tournament and last week’s US Open. His last top-10 finish was back in February when he finished fourth at the WM Phoenix Open.
On Thursday, when 27 people shot 66 or better, the two-time major winner shot an even-par 70 that left him 10 shots off the lead and needing to play well on Friday in order to avoid missing a third straight cut.
By Thomas’ standards, several facets of his game are slumping, including his driving and his iron play, but Thomas’ short game is still solid. His putting, however, has been terrible this season. Thomas has fallen from a season-ending T-85 in Strokes Gained: Putting (0.091) to 151st (-0.277). On Thursday, he was -1,608 in Strokes Gained: Putting and he needed 32 putts to complete his round.
Wednesday was the Summer Solstice, but the season’s final major, the British Open at Royal Liverpool, is just 25 days away. Thomas, 30, needs to find his game quickly.
Rory was aceless?
How is it possible that Rory McIlroy, one of the greatest ballstrikers of his generation, had never made a hole-in-one before today, when he hit a 5-iron on the 214-yard par-3 eighth into the cup?
Story originally appeared on GolfWeek