Shane Lowry got off to a solid start in the Valspar Championship at the Copperhead course in Palm Harbor with an opening round of two-under-par 69 to trail co-clubhouse leaders, Venezuela's Jhonattan Vegas and defending champion Sam Burns, by five shots on a day of hot scoring.
Vegas, chasing his first win on the PGA Tour since the 2017 Canadian Open, took advantage of his early morning tee-time – with soft greens and calm conditions – to sign for a 64,which was later matched by Burns, giving them a one-stroke lead over Danny Lee, Richy Werenski and Scott Stallings.
“I haven’t been hitting my irons great [recently]. I’m in a switch of irons for this week after [The Players] and [using] old irons. I just have my feels back. I started hitting it good and solid again,” said Vegas, who missed the cut in Sawgrass last week but responded with a round that garnered an eagle, six birdies and a lone bogey.
Lowry – who has made a strong start to the season, with four top-15s in five starts including a runner-up finish in the Honda Classic last month – capitalised on the par fives, birdieing four of them in his opening round.
The Offaly man, currently ranked 36th in the world, got off to a flying start with a birdie on the par-five first, from seven feet, and then hit his tee shot on the par-three fourth to 12 feet and sank the putt. His only bogey arrived on the par-three eighth where Lowry missed the green right but he responded with further birdies on the par-five 11th and 14th. However, Lowry finished on a low as he suffered a three-putt bogey on the 18th.
Graeme McDowell started with seven straight pars only to hit a speed bump approaching the turn, with back-to-back bogeys on the eighth and ninth. A further bogey followed on the 11th after finding the rough down the right and, although he bounced back with successive birdies on the 12th and 13th, he again missed the fairway on the 14th and then put his approach shot on the par-five into water in suffering another bogey in a round of 73 and now faces a battle to survive the midway cut.
Lee, looking for a first PGA Tour win since his 2015 success in The Greenbrier, signed for a 65 that got him into the mix.
“I always like this place. Tee to green it just suits my eye very well and obviously I also hit it great today. I wish I can play like this every day. But it’s nice to play under normal conditions again, the last two weeks have been brutally tough, mentally and physically. Today was actually, I would say, a little easier,” said the New Zealander.
South Africa's James Hart du Preez, who is eyeing a potential move to the United States after his upcoming wedding, flirted with a 59 coming down the stretch in the Steyn City Championship at The Club at Steyn City, outside Johannesburg, before ultimately signing for a nine-under-par 63 to claim the first round lead in the tournament, co-sanctioned by the DP World and Sunshine Tours.
Du Preez had one of those memorable days when the hard work of the past few months finally paid off as he teed off at the par-five 10th and made an eagle and two birdies in his first four holes. He was 11-under-par and starting to think about a 59, but then closed with two bogeys.
"It's still an unbelievable round for me, and probably the most fun I've had in tournament golf," he said as he claimed a one-shot lead over fellow South Africans Shaun Norris and Jaco Ahlers and Italian Nino Bertasio.
Unfortunately for Jonathan Caldwell, the only Irish player in the field, it proved to be a more frustrating round as his run of poor form continued in an opening 77 that left him cast adrift in 154th place.
