PGA Tour: Round One Highlights and Thoughts from the CJ Cup

Round one of the CJ Cup at Nine Bridges is in the books. Let’s take a look at some highlights from the opening day at this week’s PGA Tour event.

For those who struggle to watch golf during the first two rounds of a PGA Tour event, the CJ Cup can help you with that. With it being played in South Korea, tee times start at 7:00 PM Eastern, making it a little easier for those in the United States to watch some golf. Not so much for Europe, with tee times starting within a couple of hours of Midnight depending on your location.

That also means that come Sunday, we aren’t going to have any PGA Tour golf on TV. Due to that time difference, the first round actually started Wednesday this week.

For those who plan on watching the CJ Cup tonight, make sure to tune in at 7:40 PM Eastern to catch first-round leader Byeong-Hun An. He shot a clean round of 64 to open the event, with eight birdies. He takes sole possession of the lead, and will be looking for his fourth career win, but first on the PGA Tour.

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He holds the lead over Joaquin Niemann, who turned in a clean round one scorecard as well. seven birdies were good enough to get him to second place on his own. His back nine was where he really turned it on, shooting a -5 31.

Although he is five shots back and sits at -3, Viktor Hovland set a PGA Tour record with his opening round 69. He became the first player to shoot 18 consecutive rounds in the 60’s. He made people sweat as he went for it. Even par through eleven holes, he would finish with birdies on 12,15, and 17 to get to -3.

The Koepka Bro’s got off to a nice start as well at the CJ Cup. Brooks shot -3 and Chase shot -2, getting them to T15th and T29th, respectively. It looked like Chase was going to beat Brooks, as he held a one-shot lead as Brooks took to the 18th tee. He would finish with Eagle, hopping over his brother on the scoreboard. It could be a sign of things to come for Brooks, who is looking to defend last year’s title here.

Pre Tournament favorite, Justin Thomas, made his way into the top ten with an opening-round 68. Starting on the 10th hole, Thomas made the turn at 34. He opened the second nine with birdie-bogey-birdie-birdie, and looked like he might make a charge for the top of the leaderboard. Alas, he would finish with five straight pars, and currently sits T-9th.

Of the 78 golfers who are at the CJ Cup this week, only 24 managed to shoot over par during the first round, and only six of them shot +3 or worse. Sitting alone in last place is Yongjun Bae. Even though he had back-to-back birdies on 18 and 1, he would finish out with six bogeys on his last seven holes to finish his round at +6.

There were a couple of rounds that stood out to me. First off is Jung-gon Hwang. He entered the tournament at 300/1 odds to win, according to the Action Network. He had a pretty active scorecard, with three bogeys, six birdies, and one eagle. It was good enough to get him to T-4th, and he finds himself at -5.

Graeme McDowell has been fairly quiet in recent years but showed up to the CJ Cup with his game on point. A clean and precise round finds him at -4, after four birdies to start his week.

Sergio Garcia had one of the more disappointing rounds to start the week. Coming into the tournament at 28/1, he was expected to compete. Instead, an opening-round 73 finds him nine shots back. Darn, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Hopefully, the tee boxes and bunkers are okay, along with his caddie.

Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing if Abraham Ancer and Joel Dahmen can turn their tournaments around. Ancer shot an opening-round 73, and Dahmen shot 74. There is no cut this week, so they will have three more days to try and get back on track. One of the nice things about these no-cut events is we usually get to see someone come out of nowhere after round two, shooting -9 on the weekend to vault up the leaderboard. Could it be Ancer or Dahmen?

dark. Next. Golf Tips: Don’t Let a Bad Shot Derail and Ruin Your Round

Round two gets underway at 7:00 PM Eastern tonight, and coverage starts at 10:00 PM Eastern on the Golf Channell, where they will have four hours of coverage. A great Thursday Night Football game, and then some golf to round out your evening sounds like a good way to spend your night.

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