Chad Ramey carded a stunning 8-under 64 on Thursday to claim a one-stroke lead before play was suspended in the first round of The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Play was halted just before 6:30 p.m. ET. The opening round will resume Thursday at 7:40 a.m., with the second round slated to begin as scheduled.
Ramey played bogey-free golf while picking up eight birdies to climb to the top of the leaderboard after one day of action at TPC Sawgrass. Collin Morikawa, who collected five birdies in addition to his eagle on the par-5 second hole, sits alone in second at 7 under.
Although he put together a stellar outing, Ramey said the course challenged him.
“Not easy at all,” Ramey said. “I might have made it look that way but it wasn’t easy at all. It was fun, first time to shoot a score on such an iconic course like this. You can’t ask for any more.”
Ramey got off to a fast start, going for birdie on four of the first seven holes. He also birdied Nos. 10 and 11 before finishing strong with birdies on Nos. 16 and 17.
“There’s always nerves, but it’s just they don’t mean anything. It kind of means you care. You’ve just got to deal with them,” Ramey said. “Just kind of push past them, push them aside, and just do what you’ve got to do.”
Canadian Taylor Pendrith and Ben Griffin are tied for third at 5-under 67 along with Justin Suh, who only made it through 15 holes.
Six players are tied for sixth, a grouping that includes World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler, who was even through his front nine before tallying five birdies against one bogey over his last nine holes.
“I feel like today was a bit of a battle,” Scheffler said. “I did a good job of hitting some good shots on the front nine, and I didn’t make a ton of putts, and then it was good — sorry, my front nine, the back nine. Then we made the turn, I started seeing some putts go in and definitely happy with how I finished.”
World No. 1 Jon Rahm posted just one bogey, but with just two birdies, couldn’t fight his way into early contention. He currently sits tied for 32nd. South Korean Si Woo Kim, who won the event in 2017, is in a seven-way tie for 12th.
Despite being deep down the leaderboard in a tie for 72nd, Hayden Buckley’s hole-in-one on the famous par-3 17th was among the day’s top headlines.
–Field Level Media
