Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson fired an eight-under 62 on Thursday to seize a two-stroke lead after the opening round of the Travelers Championship.
The 36-year-old American fired nine birdies in all, including four on the final five holes, the last coming on 18 after a 139-yard second shot that bounced into the flagstick and stopped just beyond the cup.
“It was about playing steady,” Watson said. “It was about being consistent. It was about hitting the driver somewhat in play, hitting the wedges somewhat close and then making the putts, and that’s what I did.”
Watson is seeking his eighth career PGA Tour triumph on the same TPC River Highlands course where he won his first in 2010 and produced two other top-10 showings.
It would be his second title of the season, having won the World Golf Championships HSBC Champions event in China in November last year.
Watson matched the low round of his career to grab the advantage, with fellow Americans Keegan Bradley, Harris English, Jason Gore and Brian Stuard and South Korea’s Noh Seung-yul sharing second on 64.
Birdies at the third, sixth, seven and ninth holes left Watson four-under at the turn.
He birdied the 12th, 14th and 15th, before taking his lone bogey at 16, but answered by closing with his third set of back-to-back birdies of the day.
“They were all good,” he said.
Watson took advantage of the benign conditions compared with last week’s difficult terrain at the US Open at Chambers Bay, where Jordan Spieth added his second major title after collecting the Masters green jacket in April.
“Coming off last week, you can score around here, you can hit some good shots,” Watson said. “You still have to play golf, but it’s more relaxed and you still feel like you can score around here.”
Watson’s playing partner Zach Johnson fired a 65 to share seventh along with fellow Americans Scott Langley, Chris Stroud, Robert Garrigus, Tom Gillis, Scott Brown and Will MacKenzie, as well as Sweden’s Carl Pettersson.
Taiwan’s Pan Cheng-tsung carded a 67 for a share of 27th place.
Watson has turned only one of four prior 18-hole leads into a victory, in 2011 in New Orleans. It was his first lead after the opening round since last year’s Phoenix Open.
First-round leaders have won the Travelers Championship four times, the most recent being Kenny Perry of the US in 2009.
Noh birdied his first four holes on the way to his lowest round since a 62 in the first round of the 2012 Deutsche Bank Championship.
The South Korean missed three cuts and withdrew from a title defense in New Orleans, before sharing third in Memphis earlier this month for his lone top-10 effort of the season.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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