Patrick Cantlay and Tony Finau both had six birdies and one bogey to grab the lead and overshadow the work done earlier by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas.
Woods is still looking for a solution off the tee after the 79-time PGA Tour winner opened the Genesis Open with a grinding one-over 72.
Having hit just 19 fairways over four rounds at Torrey Pines a few weeks ago, Woods was hoping for better accuracy in his first start at Riviera Country Club since 2006.
And while the stat line of eight of 14 fairways reads reasonably, only four of those were hit with his driver.
Unlike at Torrey – where he recovered to hit plenty of greens – Woods managed just seven of 18 on Thursday.
It meant way too many holes grinding for pars than trying to make birdies.
Making just his third tournament start since undergoing spinal fusion surgery last April, Woods chose to look at the glass as half full.
‘It was a lot better today. The shaft is a little more stout, and the times I lost it to the right, a lot of the times I was just trying to smooth it out there,’ Woods explained.
‘I can go ahead and hit this thing, I can be aggressive, and I can take out one side of the golf course, which is great.’
Lose the vote, win the day
The third player in the group – Justin Thomas – felt very much like he was, well, the third player.
Thomas is the reigning FedExCup champ, but he figures in a popularity contest, he’s taking a backseat to his playing partners: former FedExCup champs Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. ‘Obviously everyone’s out here to see Tiger,’ Thomas said. ‘I’m definitely the third player in the group.’
JT had the last laugh on Thursday, though – he shot a 69 to McIlroy’s 71 and Woods’ 72.
DJ’s got some work to do
It wasn’t a great start for defending champ Dustin Johnson, who shot a three-over 74 – his worst score in his last 23 rounds at Riviera. Most of his self-inflicted wounds came during a three-hole stretch midway through his front nine, when he went bogey-triple bogey-bogey. It took him five shots to find the green at the par-four 5th.
Saffas start well
All five South Africans fared well on Thursday, with Retief Goosen leading the way. The Goose enjoyed a great day out and carded five birdies with two drops. Next? Ernie Els! The Big Easy was a late starter and found himself +1 through 3, but fought back to finish -2 with eight straight pars to close. Tyrone van Aswegen and Branden Grace finished -1 while Charl Schwartzel closed with two birdies in his last three holes to get back to level.
Quotable quote:
‘I pulled a Jordan on that one. I thought I missed it and it went right in the middle.’ – Justin Thomas
Knew it the whole way.
? @JustinThomas34. #QuickHits pic.twitter.com/2DGSEgFjjD
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 15, 2018
Photo: Getty Images
