Dustin Johnson leading the way at Chambers Bay - with Mickelson, Snedeker, Garcia and Rose not too far behind...
An interesting opening round, and a positive start with regard to the pre-tournament picks I’d made earlier in the week – barring the one glarring omission.
Let’s get that negative out of the way first. I thought Rickie Fowler was in prime position for another great major tournament but he really had a shocker yesterday, shooting a horrible 81. No one saw that coming, including me!
At +11 he’s now 1000/1 to win the tournament, but he’ll do incredibly well to even make the cut.
Slightly more predictable is that Tiger Woods didn’t fare much better, recording a +10 opener. Bogeying the first two holes, the 14-time major winner just couldn’t recover – with a disastrous triple-bogey on 14 pretty much summing up his fortunes at the moment.
All the talk here at Chambers Bay is when Tiger will make a coaching change. Surely it’s only a matter of time – it’s just not working for him right now.
Up at the right end of the leaderboard, Henrik Stenson (6/1) is heading the European charge after shooting his lowest ever round in a major – an impressive 65.
Joining the Swede out front is one of my pre-tournament picks, Dustin Johnson (5/1). Once again, the American is impressing at a major but does he have the maturity to go on a win it?
As for my remaining picks, Phil is looking good at 1 under. There’s a lot at stake for Lefty and I just hope he doesn’t let the pressure of securing that elusive career slam affect him. He’s playing well though and has every chance at 18/1.
There were also steady starts for Brandt Snedeker (40/1) and Sergio Garcia (66/1), who closed out day 1 with solid -1 and Even par finishes respectably.
A disappointing finish for Justin Rose (33/1) means he begins Round 2 chasing from 2 over par, but he can consider himself unlucky not to have come away with better. He’s certainly not out of the picture just yet…
Sarah’s pre-tournament picks (updated prices ahead of Day 2)
5/1 – Dustin Johnson (-5 / T1)
18/1 – Phil Mickelson (-1 / T14)
40/1 – Brandt Snedeker (-1 / T14)
66/1 – Sergio Garcia (E / T26)
33/1 – Justin Rose (+2 / T52)
1000/1 – Rickie Fowler (+11 / 156)
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