A strong group of golfers are in Japan this week for the ZOZO Championship, but many PGA Tour stars are nowhere near the top of the leaderboard after the first day.
Xander Schauffele shot a 3-over 73 on Thursday and is tied for 70th. Among these 78 players, he is only three strokes ahead of the last. The reigning PGA Championship winner shot a rare 8 on the par-4 ninth hole as his drive landed at the base of a tree, leading to a complete meltdown. After the round, he called himself an “idiot” and said this “stubborn” mistake “gnawed me in the ass.”
Meanwhile, Max Homa also had a hard time adjusting to Japan on Thursday. He shot a 3-over 73 with a six-bogey round. It's no wonder he struggled, as he hit only 4 of 13 fairways and ranked 76th in strokes gained approach. Homa hasn't recorded a top-10 finish since the Wells Fargo Championship in early May.
Taylor Moore, on the other hand, has only one career win on the PGA Tour, but played well on Thursday. The former Arkansas Razorback shot a 7-under 63 to lead Eric Cole, Nico Echavarria and Max Glaserman by one stroke. Interestingly, Moore played college golf at the University of Arkansas with Echavarria.
“I'd say overall it's been very solid,” Moore said later.
“You know, I did a pretty good job on the fairways and greens for the most part. Yes, there are some chip-ins, but that always helps. Yeah, overall pretty solid. ”
Moore holed out from the sand on the 11th and chipped in on the par-5 18th for eagle. Starting from the back nine, he finished with a 4-under 32 and then made four birdies at the front to take the lead by one.
More importantly, at this point, he's in a position to move up the FedExCup fall rankings. Moore came to Japan ranked 67th in the FedEx Cup fall standings, but players ranked between 51st and 60th at the end of the RSM Classic in November will receive invitations to the first two signature events of next season. It will be done. This is a big problem, and Moore wants to do his part to address it. If he continues to win, Moore will move up to 51st place.
And just three shots behind Moore is Justin Thomas, who shot a 4-under 66. He changed his putter this week and went back to a mallet.
“[The switch] It was good. I made some good putts, but I felt like the ones I missed were also good. We burned some of the edges,” Thomas said.
“When you have this many breaks on the green, you have to be precise with your speed and match everything. I feel like I did a really good job of that. Great cleanups from 4, 5, 6 feet. I was able to do some things.”
Two notable players who didn't have their best results on Thursday were local fan favorite Hideki Matsuyama and defending champion Collin Morikawa. Matsuyama shot a 1-over 71, and Morikawa beat him by two places with a 1-under 69.
“I had a little bit of a lull and started taking some shots off and hitting fairways,” Morikawa explained.
“Here, if you miss the fairway, it's a little harder to play and you can't get as close to the pin. I didn't make a lot of putts, so I couldn't save the round. But I was able to finish the back nine clean. It was good to finish in the red and still be in the red. This is a tough golf course and I know I can still get a lot of birdies, but I just have to be patient.”
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation's Playing Through. Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
