The Barclays: Four Atop Leaderboard After Round One

Bubba Watson missed the cut here at The Barclays back in 2011 when Plainfield Country Club hosted, but four years later Watson finds himself atop the leaderboard with three others after shooting a 5-under 65.

Joining Watson are Spencer Levin and Camilo Villegas who both putted lights out this morning as their Strokes Gained: Putting was 3.095 and 3.145, respectively.

Scoring came tough in the afternoon, but that didn’t stop Tony Finau from joining the leaders.

Finau started off his round birding three straight holes, but quickly gave it back as he bogeyed three straight. Finau pared the par 5 16th hole and proceeded to birdie three straight holes again.

Finau would birdie holes four and eight to make it a four way tie for first after round one.

A handful of golfers are just one stroke behind including Danny Lee who continues to play red hot golf.

What has plagued Dufner throughout the year has been his putting. His ball-striking has remained excellent, but the flat stick has let him down. Not today.

Dufner’s Strokes Gained: Putting for the day was 3.185. If he can keep putting like that, Dufner will be around come Sunday afternoon.

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Paul Casey had one of the shots of the day as he holed out an eagle shot on the 4th hole en route to shooting a 4-under 66.

Russell Knox, Cameron Tringale, and Bryce Molder are also in the group, as well.

One of the things to watch for coming in was just how Jason Day and Dustin Johnson would perform after withdrawing from the pro-am yesterday.

Day played well shooting a 2-under 68 as sits in a tie for 18th. Johnson didn’t have as good of a day, but still had a solid showing shooting an even-round 70.

The biggest storyline that unfolded was just how poor the big name golfers played. Brooks Koepka was very uneven shooting 2-over for the day only birding one hole, but an eagle on 12 gave him a bit of a boost.

Jordan Spieth started off the round well with a birdie on ten and a birdie on sixteen, but his back nine was dreadful. Spieth bogeyed one, two, five, seven, and nine. Spieth did birdie four, but double bogeyed three, as well.

Spieth has some work to do, but he usually comes out strong on Friday. Spieth shooting a 5-under 65 wouldn’t be a surprise at all. Another round over par would be.

Billy Horschel, the defending FedEx Cup Champion, shot a 6-over par. Horschel made a mess of things on the third hole as he shot the dreaded quad and things didn’t get better from there.

Horschel was 8-over after nine holes, but he did bounce back on the back nine shooting 2-under par. We’ll see if Horschel can carry that momentum into tomorrow.

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As expected, Chris Kirk struggled in his return from a broken hand. Kirk only hit 42% of fairways and his Strokes Gained: Putting was a -2.697.

Hunter Mahan is lost at the moment as he continues struggle. Mahan shot an 8-over par and sits in a tie 115th along with Ian Poulter, John Huh, and others.

The biggest surprise, however, was probably Justin Rose. Rose had been one of the hottest golfers in the world and I thought maybe he wouldn’t be 100% motivated coming in, but I didn’t think 7-over was in the cards.

Rose didn’t strike the ball well as he only hit 35% of the fairways and his putter let him down once again. Rose’s Strokes Gained: Putting was -3.052.

After round one, it looks like one of those tournaments. A number of the favorites are struggling while a lot of the underdogs reside atop the leaderboard. However, it’s only round one and we’ll see how things shake out tomorrow.

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