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Hilton Head, SC, US, June 19: Ian Poulter closed his round with a 30-foot birdie on 17thfollowed by a superb 5-Irorn to four feet for his seventh gain of the day and finish on top of the leaderboard with a bogey-free seven-under 64 in the first round at the RBC Heritage.
Poulter, 44, shared the lead with Korn Ferry graduate Mark Hubbard who in contrast to the Englishman closed with two par putts at the end.
Both Poulter and Hubbard were bogey free. Poulter had three birdies on front nine and four on the back nine, while Hubbard starting from 10thtwo till the turn after which he had four more and an eagle on par-5 second.
If Collin Morikawa was the young gun to stand out last week, it was Norwegian Viktor Hovland’s turn on Thursday with a six-under 65 alongside six other stars, Sebastian Munoz, Webb Simpson, Ryan Palmer, Brice Garnett and Dylan Fritelli. Defending champion CT Pan opened with a 3-under 68. He opened with a bogey on Hole 10 to turn in 37 and made four birdies Holes second, fifth, sixth and eighth. for an inward 32.
Striking it for the ‘elderly lot’ were 50-year-old Ernie Els, with 67, while and former Masters champion, Bernhard Langer, 61, and the 50-year-old Jim Furyk had 69 each. At one stage Els was tied for lead.
Jordan Spieth was one of the six at five-under 66, but his card had an eight birdies and an early triple bogey. After hitting a tree and going out of bounds, he reached the green in four and three-putted from inside 25 feet for a seven on Par-4 12th, which was his third hole. But aided by a quick talk with caddie Michael Greller, Spieth played his second nine with seven birdies. So good was his hitting that just one of those seven birdies on the stretch required a birdie putt from more than 10 feet – it was 12 feet. The run included a career-best run of six successive birdies from second to seventh.
“All of a sudden, I’m 3 over through three, and you start to see guys going 2 under through two, 2 under through three early. It’s not a great feeling,” Spieth said. So he told his caddie on the 13th tee, “That’s over. Let’s get four (birdies) today and shoot under par.”
“I ended up getting a few more than that,” Spieth said.
Last week Spieth had a four-putt double bogey, where he missed twice from inside three feet, but ended the week at 10th.
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy struggled and was helped by a pair of birdies on the back nine tot shoot one-over 72 as he returned to Harbour Town after 11 years.
Last week’s winner, Daniel Berger, Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler were among the pack of 10 at 67 in Tied-16th.
Read also:
Destiny’s child CT Pan ready to defend his RBC Heritage title
McIlroy says he can’t understand why Europeans who could did not come to US ahead of the re-start
McIlroy on bulked-up DeChambeau, Major-like fields and return to Harbour Town after 11 years
