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Even with a plethora of low scores, new Tour venue still a moving target

DETROIT – The opening round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic was as close as the PGA Tour gets to a blank slate.

The first swings of the inaugural event offered no historical context for the 156-man field. The vintage layout at Detroit Golf Club boasts a history dating back more than a century and the fingerprints of Donald Ross, but it had never before faced the brunt of a Dustin Johnson drive when it counts.

So as players arrived Thursday to calm conditions and soft turf, they were left to take their best guess – not only at what would amount to a good score, but what they might need simply to keep pace as the nascent event got off the ground.

“You really don’t know what guys are going to do,” said Rickie Fowler. “You can make kind of a stress-free, mid-60s round pretty quickly out here. But you have to drive it well.”

Early in the week, it seemed like mid-60s rounds on the par-72 layout would be in ample supply. Offering a straightforward setup with relatively wide fairways, barely any rough and four reachable par-5s, the top players in the field seemed ideally equipped to lay waste to a new layout. One week after Chez Reavie won in Hartford at 17 under, there were whispers that the winning total this week might go well beyond that figure.

And that was certainly the case for the morning wave, where Nate Lashley set the pace with a 9-under 63 and was joined in red figures by notables like Charles Howell III (65), Kevin Kisner (66), Fowler (68) and Bubba Watson (68). But those lucky enough to go out early appreciated the fact that the sailing would likely not remain quite as smooth over the subsequent 54 holes.

“Today was as gettable as you’ll ever see it,” Howell said. “Minimal wind, greens soft. So it was nice to take advantage of that, but I’m not sure we’re going to see it again.”


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Howell needed to wait only a couple hours to see how quickly things can turn. With afternoon winds freshening and putting surfaces drying out, the afternoon wave largely struggled to keep pace and the two biggest names in the field – Dustin Johnson and Gary Woodland – both faced a battle just to get back to par.

“My timing was off. I was probably really excited to play today, I was excited to be out there,” said Woodland, who at one point was in last place before carding a 1-over 73. “I was just quick. My lower body, I hit everything right all day.”

The guessing game this week extends beyond just the locker room. Rules officials and tournament setup crews, all with years of experience outlining the same rotation of Tour venues with Groundhog Day precision, now must start from scratch and learn how a new venue will react to competitive play. The general consensus Thursday was that officials erred on the side of caution, but with an optimistic weather forecast there’s an expectation that things could soon get dialed up a notch or two.

“If the wind picks up, that’s the defense of this golf course. The greens and the wind,” Watson said. “I mean, you get 10 mph winds, you start guessing yourself. And the trees start going one way but you know the forecast is the other way, that’s when a golf course gets difficult.”

That difficulty was plenty evident for Woodland and Johnson, both of whom now have work to do Friday morning to avoid an early exit. But for the tournament leaders, it’s still very much a moving target. Consider that a 5-under 67, often times a score good enough to snag a spot on the first page of the leaderboard, still trailed 23 names Thursday and hovers barely above the projected cut line.

Will the low scoring continue? Will officials allow the course to grow some teeth and firm up heading into the weekend? It’s the general tendency with most Tour venues, meaning that the swath of red figures is expected to slow down. But with a new venue whose primary defense relies strongly on the billowing breezes above, it’s hardly a guarantee.

Novelty welcomes questions, but it can also breed creativity. Afforded an opportunity to start from scratch, many of the leaders relished the chance to rely more on feel than muscle memory – at least for the time being.

“Listen, I can tell you what I’m going to hit on the third tee at (Sony Open host course) Waialae before I even get there,” Howell said. “It’s fun playing new golf courses. This being new, next week (3M Open) being new, you kind of get excited to learn a new place.”