Louis Oosthuizen put his ‘honour’ of completing a career slam of runner-up finishes behind him on Thursday with an opening 67 at the Northern Trust Open.
The Open winner is without a regular PGA Tour event win, but moved nicely into contention with three consecutive birdies. He cancelled out a bogey on his fourth hole with a birdie on the ninth, and couldn’t stay at four-under as he undid his birdie at the 12th with a drop at the 16th.
His opening round was good enough for a share of sixth, with Russel Henley leading on six-under-par. World No 1, Dustin Johnson, was sporting a new putter and it worked as he fired his way to solo second on five-under.
‘Around here, any score under par is good,’ said Oosthuizen.
‘Good way to start the tournament. But you need to drive it really well to put it in good position. I think if you do that, you can score around here a little bit.’
The 34-year-old’s good start to the first FedExCup playoff event has him projected to move up 19 places to 16th in the race for the $10-million bonus waiting for the winner at East Lake.
‘I think for me, where I am at the moment, it’s probably a normal one,’ said Oosthuizen of his position in the rankings.
‘I think probably for guys close to 100, it’s going to be a bit different week for them.
‘It’s a great opportunity to have a really good first one. You can jump up quite a bit and sort of get good momentum going into the last three. But you know, it’s a tough golf course. You need to hit the fairways and greens, and you know, it’s a big course. So we’ll see a few guys out there this week bombing drives.’
That good news was not shared by Branden Grace, Tyrone Van Aswegen and Rory Sabbatini. The trio are all in danger of missing out on the second event, after struggling on Thursday.
Grace was 90th, but is now projected outside the top 100 after an opening 75. That was matched by Van Aswegen, who is now 117th after starting five spots better. Sabbatini played his way into the finals with a T4 finish at the Wyndham Championship, but needs another special round on Friday after he opened with a three-over-par 73 – he sits 124th in the rankings.
Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images
