PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Jason Day created a far better memory on Thursday than his last round at TPC Sawgrass. Not only was he 18 shots better, the world’s No. 1 player tied the course record with a 9-under-par 63 that gave him a two-shot lead in The Players Championship.
In a game that can defy logic, and on a course that can be perplexing, Day had a simple explanation for bouncing back from last year’s 81.
“I’m playing a lot better than I was last year,” he said.
Day was in such control that he putted for birdie on every hole. He made half of them, and his longest par putt was 30 inches.
“Tee to green was pretty decent — was actually really good — and then once I got on the green, I felt like I could hole everything,” he said.
It helped that there was hardly any wind on a steaming morning that made TPC Sawgrass more vulnerable than usual.
The wind began to increase in the afternoon and it made a big difference. Of the 40 rounds in the 60s, 29 of those were in the morning. Boo Weekley had the low score in the afternoon at 66. The 40 rounds in the 60s and 78 rounds under par were the most for an opening round at The Players since 1993.
“I don’t know what the guys were doing out there this morning, but I don’t think we saw the same golf course this afternoon,” Rory McIlroy said after shooting a 72. “It was a little firmer, the wind got up a little bit and those guys made the course look awfully easy this morning.”
Day had only the fifth round of 63 at the Stadium Course in the 35 years of The Players Championship.
Shane Lowry became the first player to shoot a 29 on the back nine. He was in the group at 65 that included Justin Rose and Bill Haas. Ernie Els, who just last month started the Masters with a six-putt quintuple bogey, ran off six birdies and an eagle to lead the group at 66.
Not everyone took advantage of the morning, including Jordan Spieth.
In his first tournament since he lost a five-shot lead on the back nine at Augusta National, Spieth played alongside Day and labored his way to a 72. Spieth said he has put the Masters behind him. Now he has to get rid of the poor finishes.
With three consecutive birdies, Spieth was trying to at least stay in Day’s neighborhood. Then he made bogeys on back-to-back holes, answered with a birdie, and then ended his round of 72 with a double bogey by taking five shots to get up and down from a bunker behind the green on the par-5 ninth hole.
“I hit it seven times,” Spieth said. “I hit two fantastic shots, and then not really sure after that.”
Danny Willett, the Masters champion, opened with a 70 in his first competition since slipping on the green jacket.
Rose looked at the pin positions and had a good feeling, especially on the island-green 17th. It was at the front, with a ridge serving as a backboard. By mid-afternoon, only four shots found the water, and with hardly any wind and greens still moderately soft, good scores were available.
“If there was a day to get the course, today was it,” Rose said.
Day wasted no time.
He knocked in a 30-foot putt on his first hole, caught a good break on the par-5 11th by having a clear gap out of the pine trees that set up a birdie from the bunker and made it three consecutive birdies with a wedge into six feet on the 12th.
He felt tired, but there was no stress.
Day only got into what looked like trouble on two occasions. He had a stick behind his ball from the pine straw on the par-5 second hole and sent that shot well out to the right, but he hit a perfect pitch that just landed on the green and rolled down to a foot for a birdie.
On the seventh, Day’s drive hit the back end of a bunker and kicked forward down a slope and just inside the red hazard line of a pond, about a yard from the water. He worried about his wedge going long, but it settled 15 feet away for a birdie.
That’s when he started thinking about the course record, last match by Martin Kaymer two years ago in the opening round of his victory.
“Then I’m like, ’OK, I think I can birdie 8 and 9, and that’ll clip the course record.’ It would be nice to shoot 10 under,” he said.
His 40-foot birdie attempt on the par-3 eighth looked good ball the way, and Day began to backpedal as the ball got closer to the cup, a move he first made famous when he won the PGA Championship last year. He threw up his head in disbelief when the ball caught the right lip, and he tapped in for par.
Then, on the par-5 ninth, he hit another great bunker shot that curled back toward the cup and settled inches away for his ninth birdie and a 63, allowing him to join Kaymer, Roberto Castro in 2013, Greg Norman in 1994 and Fred Couples in 1992.
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