PGA Tour: golf is back and full of surprises at Colonial
By Tim Letcher
Justin Rose and Harold Varner III are the surprise leaders after day one of the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge
The PGA Tour returned on Thursday with the opening round of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. The tour had been dormant for over three months due to the restrictions from the coronavirus. In fact, Thursday’s round was still played without any fans in attendance. And Justin Rose and Harold Varner III made statements in the first round.
The field for this week’s event includes the top five players in the world and 16 of the top 20. So, one would expect to see Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson at the top of the leaderboard. But if 2020 has taught us anything, we should know by now to expect the unexpected.
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Even co-leader Rose, who won at Colonial in 2018 and is a major champion as well, comes as a bit of a surprise this year. Rose has missed the cut in three of his previous five starts on the tour this season. The two times he did make the cut, he has a T28 (World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions) and a T56 (Genesis Invitational).
On Thursday, he looked like the Rose of old. He started on the back nine and recorded four birdies on his way to a 4-under par 31. On the front nine, he birdied the first three holes before parring out to shoot a 7-under par 63.
Varner is tied with Rose at 7-under par after 18 holes. Varner has not only never won on the PGA Tour. He’s only had one top-three finish in his career. He birdied the 18th hole to share the lead with Rose.
Four players are tied for third place after one round. Thomas is in that group at 6-under par, along with Abraham Ancer, Collin Morikawa and, another surprise, Jhonattan Vegas.
A large group sits a 5-under par after 18 holes
Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau and Gary Woodland are on that list, none of which are surprising. But Brian Harman, Tyler Duncan and, get this, 61-year-old Tom Lehman are also in that group. Those were not players who figured to be in contention this week, especially given the strength of the field.
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As for the top five in the world, all five remain in contention. In addition to Thomas’ 64, McIlroy and Koepka each shot a 2-under par 68, Rahm had a 1-under par 69 and Johnson had a 1-over par 71.
As has been the case for most of this calendar year, Thursday was full of surprises at Colonial. As the week continues, it will be interesting to see if any of these storylines can play out for all 72 holes.