Roberto Castro carded a 7-under-par 65 and held a one-stroke lead over Brian Harman with much of the field still on the course when darkness halted the first round of the rain-delayed BMW Championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind.
Castro, who has never won on the PGA Tour and lost to James Hahn in a playoff earlier this year in the Wells Fargo Championship, birdied five of seven holes through No. 17 before closing with his only bogey in round one in the third event of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
“We’ve had a lot of rain delays on the PGA Tour this year, so it was nice to get my round in,” said Castro, whose birdies included a 41-foot chip-in on the 497-yard 14th hole. “I hit two pretty good shots to get there, but it looked like (his chip) was going to miss on the left side, but it went in the hole.
” … The course was very different after the rain. It was firm and fast early, but later it was very get-able. It really softened up.”
Harman, who was in the hunt last week in the Deutsche Bank Championship until finishing with a 77 to tie for 24th, sank a 15-foot eagle putt on the 15th hole in his 64.
U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson was one stroke back through 17 holes, but hit his tee shot into the water at No. 18 en route to a bogey and equaled Jason Dufner’s 67, while Chris Kirk was tied for third with them at 5-under through nine holes.
Fabian Gomez of Argentina had six birdies in a 68 and was tied for sixth with sixth-ranked Adam Scott of Australia and Paul Casey of England, who were 4-under through 10 holes, and Hideki Matsuyama, who was on the same number after 12 holes.
Jason Kokrak, one of four players to finish in the top 10 in each of the first two playoff events, was tied for 10th at 69 with Charley Hoffman of Poway, Kevin Na of Diamond Bar, Sergio Garcia of Spain and Charles Howell III.
Also tied for 10th and still on the course were third-ranked Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, last week’s winner, at 3-under through 10 holes, Matt Kuchar (13 holes), Jon Curran (16), Billy Hurley III (15), Charl Schwartzel (14) of South Africa, Jim Herman (14), Louis Oosthuizen (14) of South Africa, Jhonattan Vegas (13) of Venezuela and Brooks Koepka (14).
Eighth-ranked Patrick Reed, the FedEx Cup points leader, shot 70 and was in a tie for 24th that included No. 4 Jordan Spieth, who was 2-under through 10 holes, and top-ranked Jason Day of Australia was in a tie for 51st after a 73.
