All the stars were present at TPC Boston on Thursday in the first round of The Northern Trust, but not all of them showed up. While none of the big names in the field played particularly poorly, none of them appeared on a day when the course was available. The co-lead after Round 1 is shared by three players who are ranked outside the top 40 in the world, but all shot 64s to open the first FedEx Cup Playoffs event.
Let’s take a closer look at their performances as the rest of the big names ran this Leaderboard.
T1. Kevin Streelman, Harris English, Cameron Davis, Russell Henley (-7) – This performance from English is not surprising if you have been paying attention in recent months. English has five straight top 25s and can absolutely hang out with the best ball strikers in the world. He finished second in this elite field (against Streelman) in iron play and shot a 31 on the harder side of the course (the eighth nine). I love an early bet that he will win later this weekend. Davis made the biggest jump of the FedEx Cup in Round 1, going from 91st to sixth on the projected board. That goes from the playoffs to well within the 18-hole Tour Championship cut line. We’ll see if it can last.
T4. Louis Oosthuizen, Bubba Watson, Kevin Kisner, Charley Hoffman, Scott Piercy, Sebastian Munoz, Matthew Wolff (-6) – Munoz hit fire at the front of his round by making bird at the first seven (!) Holes for evening out the rest of the way. He came up with exactly zero top 10s in 2020. One thing to keep an eye on here is how well King Louis plays at TPC Boston. He could be a problem this weekend.
T11. Adam Scott, Tommy Fleetwood, Ian Poulter, Daniel Berger, Charles Howell III, Talor Gooch, Robby Shelton, Danny Lee (-5) Berger is another man who, if you have noticed, should not surprise you. He is the top 10 in the FedEx Cup to come and play perhaps the best golf course of his entire life. Some of the pit numbers do not seem sustainable, and yet – just like Jason Day a few years ago – he has kept them. He also sees upward trends in all other parts of his game. No surprises as he controversies, not only at the end of this week, but also at the $ 15 million Tour Championship.
T20. Dustin Johnson (-4) – DJ had the worst great round in the field. He went out in 30 on the harder side of the course and came home in 1 over on the easy side. This guy is taking up his career as well. The way he put his round together was also bonkers. He was almost last in the field in both riding and farm and still shooting 67. Seeing how his season has gone (and this day went), I have absolutely no idea what I would expect from Friday-Sunday.
T30. Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas (-3) – I saw most of Thomas’ round on Thursday, and boy was it a masterclass in “how to win a tournament on a Thursday.” He shot the best 3-under 68 I’ve ever seen after playing his short game of tee-to-green for a first nine that was mostly wasteful but somehow ended up with him at 1 below. This is what happens when you have no holes in your game. Tiger’s 68 was traditional, and he beat his jet fighters beautifully all day, although he did not ride it so well. He will have to put that part of his game on course in the coming days, but it seems that everything is moving in the right direction.
T49. Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy (-2) – Not much notable here other than the names. Rahm hit his irons badly, and Spieth did his usual “16 birdies, eight bogeys and two triples in an 18-hole round” thing. Rory is the one to be seen Friday afternoon.
T112. Phil Mickelson (+3) – Lefty’s streak of making every single round-of-70 FedEx Cup Playoffs event (the penultimate tournament of the year) needs a real shot in the arm Friday as it will end.
CBS Sports was with you the whole way in updating this story with the latest scores, updates and highlights below. Check out the live scores at the top of this story, a more detailed Leaderboard and our full view of the show.
