Keegan Bradley and Sebastian Cappelen of Denmark went about their business and share the lead after one round of the Farmers Insurance Open as most eyes at Torrey Pines Golf Course www.torreypinesgolfcourse.com in La Jolla were on Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland.
Woods can pass Sam Snead and set a PGA Tour record with his 83rd victory this week, while McIlroy will claim the top spot in the World Golf Rankings by winning, but right now they are looking up at Bradley, who shot 6-under-par 66 on the North Course, and Cappelen, who duplicated that score on the South Course.
“I love playing the North Course because I can hit driver on every hole except the par-3s,” said Bradley (pictured), the 2011 PGA champion who claimed the last of his four victories on the PGA Tour in the 2018 BMW Championship. “But you’ve got to hit the ball straight because the rough is deep.
“I took several weeks off during the break and spent a lot of time working on my game, and it feels really good right now.”
Said Cappelen, whose only pro victories came on the Korn Ferry Tour: “I never really put myself in a terrible spot where I couldn’t make par.”
Bradley played bogey-free in his round, which he highlighted with an eagle on the fifth hole, while Cappelen got rolling with five birdies on the front nine.
The second-ranked McIlroy, who was playing with a new driver that he struggled with in Wednesday’s pro-am before getting it straightened out on the range, made the last of his seven birdies while finishing off a 67 on the ninth hole of the North Course.
“It’s funny, you go through that testing process at the start of the year with new equipment (and) there’s things that seem really good on the range, but once you actually play some rounds with them competitively and try to hit certain shots, things sort of appear,” said McIlroy, who won four times in 2019 and captured the FedEx Cup.
“We seemed to have fixed it.”
McIlroy is tied for third with 2011 Farmers champion Bubba Watson, who eagled the 18th hole on the South Course, plus Sungjae Im of South Korea, Xinjun Zhang of China, Kevin Tway, Joel Dahmen, Byeong Hun An of South Korea and Matthew NeSmith—who all played on the North.”
Third-ranked Jon Rahm, who won the 2017 Farmers, shot 68 playing alongside Woods on the North Course and is tied for 11th, while the sixth-ranked Woods is in a tie for ninth after a 69 in his first round of the year.
“Overall, I’m pleased to shoot in the 60s,” said Woods, who tied Snead’s record by winning the Zozo Championship in his last start and has won eight times at Torrey Pines, including the 2008 U.S. Open.
“I drove it well today, but I can’t keep up with ‘Rahmbo.’ I don’t have that gear anymore.
I could probably could have gotten one or two more out of my round today, but overall, I felt like it was a good start, especially going into the South Course.”
Local favorite Phil Mickelson, who has won three times at Torrey Pines, is tied for 71st after a 72, while ninth-ranked Xander Schauffele of La Jolla and San Diego State struggled to a 74 to tie for 104th, and eighth-ranked Justin Rose of England, the defending champion, is tied for 119th after a 75. All three played the South Course.
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