Garcia surges on eagles’ wings to 2-shot Players Championship lead
Sergio Garcia of Spain plays his shot from the ninth tee during the first round of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Florida on Thursday. Agence France-Presse
The Spaniard, who won the Players in 2008 and lost in a playoff in 2015, steered well clear of the trouble that bedevilled playing partner Rory McIlroy and plenty of others at TPC Sawgrass, picking up four strokes in his last three holes to set an early target no one could catch.
Brian Harman came closest, firing a five-under par 67 for solo second before darkness halted play with 21 golfers still on the course. The round will resume on Friday morning.
Garcia polished things off with an 18-foot eagle putt at the ninth, his final hole of the day. He launched his closing burst with a 16-foot birdie at the seventh and drained a 17-footer for birdie at eight.
Garcia followed his first birdie of the day at 15 with a nine-foot eagle at 16. He followed up his lone bogey of the day at the first with a birdie at the second.
And after his bravura finish, he was 14-strokes in front of McIlroy, the defending champion after his victory in 2019 thanks to the derailment of the 2020 edition by the coronavirus pandemic.
McIlroy opened his round with a double-bogey six at the 10th, where he hit his tee shot into the bushes and had to take a penalty.
Harman was one-over through seven holes after three bogeys and two birdies, but he launched a run of four straight birdies at the ninth, then added birdies at 15 and 16 before saving par at 18 to finish five-under.
Ireland’s Shane Lowry twice got to five-under, regaining a share of second with a birdie at 17 before a closing bogey left him in a group on 68 alongside England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick and Canadian Corey Conners.
Bryson DeChambeau, coming off a victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday, headed a group on 69 that also included Lee Westwood of England, Denny McCarthy and Tom Hoge.
World number one Dustin Johnson settled for a one-over par 73, while second-ranked Jon Rahm of Spain, three-over through 10 holes, had four birdies coming in before a bogey at 18 in an even-par 72.
