Jordan Spieth was one of a number of players to post a good score at the Cognizant Classic as the PGA National course helped players go low.
Jake Knapp caught the headlines as he carded a course record 12-under 59 and put himself in prime position to go on and win.
Three players are at eight under, while a host of big names sit around the six and seven under marks.
One of those players is Jordan Spieth, who carded a solid enough six under to put himself into contention around the top ten. The American needs a high finish to get into the Arnold Palmer Invitational, having been snubbed from the exemption invites.
However, while Billy Horschel lamented the PGA National course set up, Spieth conceded he wasn’t quite as aware of just how easy things had become.
Jordan Spieth comments on the PGA National course after round one of the Cognizant Classic
Questioned on whether he’d played the course in practice too much and noticed the easier nature of the course, Spieth admitted he’d not quite clocked the over-seeding issues.
“Yeah, I think just arriving on property, I didn’t realize that it was overseeded, and the fairways being overseeded changes it a lot because it’ll make the fairways softer which makes them wider, and then around the greens it’s significantly easier than the dormant Bermuda. You’re looking at easily a stroke a round on just the change in the grass types in the fairway,” Spieth said.
“Then I hit a couple in the rough on Tuesday and I could advance a 3-wood up by the green on 10. Right away, just compared to what I had seen, I thought it would be playing easier than it typically does.”
Pressed further on why the scoring was so low, Spieth admitted that the position of the pins made it easier, albeit he predicted things will get tougher.
“The pins were in very gettable locations today. If you give the four locations on the green and you asked which one is the easiest, I would say probably half of them were on the easiest location today instead of just a quarter of them.
“The mixture was a little different, so it’s going to be harder just off of hole locations, let alone with some wind picking up as the week goes on and everything firming up a little bit.”
Jordan Spieth makes history during round one of the Cognizant
Despite being six back of the leader, Jordan Spieth looked in good form in Florida.
Indeed, in looking like he did, Spieth also put himself into the record books as he plotted his way around the PGA National course.
Spieth became just the 14th golfer to make birdies on all the holes in the famous ‘Bear Trap’ section of the PGA National.
Despite Spieth’s prediction of tougher conditions to come, he’ll be hoping to go low in round two and from there, put himself in prime position to contend to win.
Of course, Jake Knapp needs to drop some shots first. If he doesn’t do that, then it could be game over.
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