Min Woo Lee leads a seven-strong Australian contingent at the Players Championship having opened the tournament with a four-under par 68 at TPC Sawgrass. Lee sits four shots behind first-round leader, Chad Ramey, who shot a 64 before darkness suspended play in Florida on Thursday.
Lee, who suffered a cramp mid-round and needed treatment on-course, shot his way into the lead early at six-under through 13 holes, only to be brought back by two closing bogeys.
The two-time DP World Tour winner Lee was pleased with his round, after discovering that his putting alignment was off and changing his routine on the fly.
“Yeah, everything was clicking, especially the putting,” he said. “I think the putting was really solid. I did change something with my putting. Felt like I missed a lot of putts right, so I started lining the ball up, and they started on line, which I thought I was doing without the line. So it was quite nice to actually see the ball rolling on the intended line.”
Lee said his two biggest weapons to tackle the brut test at the Pete Dye-designed Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass over the next three rounds would be his irons and putting.
“I think approach and putting, but also you have to hit it good off the tee to have some good approaches. I made my first bogey on 14, I think, and I was a yard off the fairway. If you get it on the fairway, there’s definitely chances for birdies, but if you’re not, you’ve got to just get it back in play. I think everything you need pretty good here.
Cam Davis also cared a solid opening round, a 69 that left him at three under. He said it felt good after four missed cuts from his past five tournaments, which he attributes to an unknown illness that has prevented him from practising.
“I’ve been unwell for the first couple of months of the year,” Davis said. “I haven’t really been able to practise much. I let a few things get to me. Also we’re playing such tough courses out here like Riviera, Bay Hill they’re always set up that you need to be really on. The frustration was getting a bit too much for me. So, yeah, decided to turn things around. This is the first week where I’m really feeling like I’m starting to get the hang of it again. Yeah, hopefully this is just the beginning for me again. So I’m looking forward to tomorrow, looking forward to the rest of this week, but I feel like the stuff that I worked on today is going to be really good for me going forward.”
Harrison Endycott shot a 70 and on his first competitive round at TPC Sawgrass and sat at two under, joining fellow Australian and 2016 Players Championship winner Jason Day.
Day recently moved his world ranking back up to 43rd, but said he wasn’t thinking about holding onto the top-50 spot through until March 27, which would get him into the Masters. Day missed last year’s first Major due to a world ranking north of 100, and his 2015 PGA Championship exemptions into the other Majors ran out in 2021.
“I’m trying not to think about the Masters right now, I’m more focused on playing another three good rounds this week and then the WGC–Match Play, so there’s a couple good events coming up including this week where if I play well, the world ranking will take care of itself,” he said.
Adam Scott (72), Aaron Baddeley (73) and Lucas Herbert (82) rounded out the Australian contingent.
