2022 Texas Open Score: Russell Knox tops leaderboard at TPC San Antonio after Round 1 on Thursday
The first round of the 2022 Texas Open is in the books, and it may be more noticeable to golfers who are nowhere near the leaderboards than those at the top. Russell Knox took the lead after 65 scintillating in Round 1, and the three most notable players on the field (Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama and Rory McIlroy) combined to shoot just over 2 in a fairly benign day at TPC San Antonio.
Knox’s round was the highlight of Thursday’s crop, but it wasn’t the only storyline. The Player’s Cinderella Story at the Players Championship Anirban Lahiri played well, DP World Tour player Rasmus Hojgaard performed in one of his first PGA Tour starts, and Ben Martin the loser The tough race from last week’s Corales Puntacana Championship, is also in the hunt once again.
Let’s take a look at what happened in Round 1 and what to expect for the rest of the week as the last PGA Tour event before that. masters opens on the next 54 holes.
Leader
Russell Knox (-7): Knox has been playing at a high level for some time, and his clean card of 65 on Thursday was the culmination of that. He made six straight cuts against T6 at The Players as the most pound of any of those games. He was once again hit with great success on Thursday and just needed a neutral set day for those seven birdies.
“That’s how I want to play golf more. I tried a little harder from tee to green [lately]”Knox said.” I go back to feeling like the way I should play, which is great. I worked really hard on my game, practicing at home. It’s nice to see a little bit of success when you’re working with no results, it’s very demoralizing. But great, I’ve been training hard and I’m starting to see some benefits.”
Other candidates
2. Rasmus Hojgaard (-6)
T3. Matt Kuchar, Denny McCarthy, JJ Spaun, Aaron Rai (-5)
T7. Brendon Todd, Henrik Norlander, Scott Stallings, Matt Jones, Ryan Pal; mer, Austin S motherman, Peter Uihlein, Luke List, David Skinns, Brendan Steele, Michael Gligic, Anirban Lahiri (-4)
The 21-year-old Hojgaard has won the DP World Tour three times during his short career, and after breaking into the top 10 last week at the Corales, he looked as if he was going to kick the day at TPC San Antonio. A late double tipped off what could have been an 8 under 64, but it’s still an encouraging start for someone in the midst of a transition to the best tour in the world.
Rick Gehman and Kyle Porter discuss first-round action Thursday at the Valero Texas Open 2022. Follow and listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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Favorite Master
Rory McIlroy (E): McIlroy’s round was extremely uncomfortable. He made six birdies and controlled it pretty well most of the day, but his approach play was horrible at times and he cleared all six birdies with six bogeys to get one. No. 72 wasn’t inspiring the week before the Masters. After discussing the importance of distance control earlier this week, he didn’t show much of it early on as two of his first four approaches went too far and resulted in mistake. He will probably cut back on Friday, but this is something that needs improvement.
Jordan Spieth (E): Spieth’s swing looks different all year, and the results are still lacking, especially compared to this time a year ago. The fact is that he almost finished last in batting, and you will get a trophy watch at an event he won a year ago and need to get motivated for his Masters. next week.
Hideki Matsuyama (+2): Matsuyama has a bit of a pass here as he’s been dealing with a back injury, but it doesn’t look encouraging for his return to Augusta National next week, where he’ll host the Champions Dinner and try repeat as champion. t occurs over 20 years (Tiger Woods, 2001-02). It could also be even worse. Matsuyama went away at 40 before pulling it back a bit at the back nine and sending it home under 80. Depending on how he feels, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him retire at one point. sometime this week.
The story you should root for
Ben Martin (-3 after round 1) took the lead in most of last week’s Corales Puntacana championship before Chad Ramey wrapped up the tournament on Sunday. Martin’s reaction to that loss has me starting to look forward to him returning with a win this week and his third trip to the Masters.
Craziest Stats
Hojgaard hits the ball at 14, 18, 21, 36 and 38 feet and hit more than four shots on the court on the tree alone. Historically good effort and something that will almost certainly not be repeated by him for the rest of the week (which is important as it relates to the odds below).
Like a normal sport
Rory McIlroy had to find his approach from under a qualifying Lexus, and it led to the tweet of the day in Round 1.
New odds and options
Here are the new odds after 18 holes, provided by Caesars Sportsbook.
- Russell Knox: 10-1
- Rasmus Hojgaard: 14-1
- Denny McCarthy: 18-1
- Matt Kuchar: 18-1
- Tony Finau: 22-1
- Luke List: 22-1
- Corey Conners: 22-1
- Si Woo Kim: 25-1
- Brendan Steele: 25-1
Kim and Finau are probably the hottest names on this list given these odds. Kim dropped only four, and Finau dropped five, and both hit the ball very well in the first half but struggled a bit on and around the green. With no obvious stars at the top of the table, I’m looking for value from golfers with slightly lower win rates.
