Ryan Armour posted a 6-under-par 64 early in the day in drizzly rain and five players caught him at the top of the leaderboard by the end of the first round of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands https://tpc.com/riverhighlands in Cromwell, Conn.
Bronson Burgoon, Abraham Ancer of Mexico, Kyoung-Hoon Lee of South Korea, Zach Sucher and Mackenzie Hughes of Canada also came in at 64.
“I drove it in the fairway all day,” said the 43-year-old Armour (pictured), whose only PGA Tour victory came in the 2017 Sanderson Farms Championship. “The only fairway I missed was 15. I drove it in the water and made bogey.
“(Hitting the fairway) allowed me to lift, clean, and place out here in the soft, muddy conditions. Allowed me to get my hand on a perfect lie every time and you could be kind of aggressive to some hole locations.
“I played well. Gave myself a lot of opportunities, which I hadn’t been doing lately.”
Said the 32-year-old Burgoon, who has missed the cut in 10 of his 14 starts this season: “It’s been a tough year for me. But it is what it is. You’ve got to pick yourself up and keep going.
“My whole golf career has been an uphill battle, honestly. I feel like I’ve made golf a little more complicated than it should be. I’m trying to simply things and get my mind where I can compete.
“One thing I can do is compete.”
Big things were expected of Burgoon when he made the winning putt to give Texas A&M the 2009 NCAA Championship, but his only two pro victories have come on mini-tours.
Sucher joined the tie at the top with a nine-foot birdie putt on the last hole, while Hughes closed with an 18-footer for birdie while finishing at No. 9, where Ancer also made a closing birdie from 12 feet. Lee birdied four of the first six holes in his bogey-free round.
Paul Casey of England had a share of the lead before making his only bogey on the final hole and his 65 left him in a tie for seventh with Keegan Bradley, Chez Reavie, Robert Streb, Scott Langley and Brady Schnell.
Eighth-ranked Patrick Cantlay of Los Alamitos and UCLA shot 66 and is tied for 16th, two-time Travelers champion Phil Mickelson is tied for 25th at 67, while seventh-ranked Justin Thomas totaled 68 and is in a tie for 42nd that includes 10th-ranked Bryson DeChambeau of Clovis.
Defending champion Bubba Watson, who has won the tournament three times, finished at 69 and is in a tie for 61st that includes sixth-ranked Francesco Molinari of Italy, and top-ranked Brooks Koepka is tied for 112th following a 71.
For complete results, visit https://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html
