Notebook: Good Omen for Jordan Spieth, Back to Work for Kurt Kitayama

Jordan Spieth's record at the Players Championship isn't stellar but a first-round 69 was a positive step.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Jordan Spieth’s success rate at the Players has been, in a word, singular.

Only one time has Spieth finished in the top 10—a T4 in 2014, his first appearance at the Tour’s flagship event.

Besides that, his record is abysmal with five missed cuts and two finishes in the top 50, a T41 in 2018 and T48 in 2021.

Add in the fact that he has only recorded one opening round in the 60s, a 67 in 2014, then his opening 69 on Thursday was a monumental step towards better things over the next three days.

“It's just one of those places where I felt like the way I played was really good a lot of times, and then I look at the board here, and I'm like, 'huh, I'm not even in the top 10,'” Spieth said after a round that included five birdies. “That's just the way this tournament has been for me. I'm not going to try and do anything differently, try and force anything more, it's just I felt like I played what would have been at least that last week, and for some reason it doesn't yield a lower score out here.”

Spieth’s highlight shot came on the par-5 11th hole. Finding the greenside bunker from 223 yards, Spieth had a 37-yard bunker shot to a green with considerable movement in the green and a hole location at the back of the green.

The shot came out perfectly and ran across the green and up to the hole, stopping inside 2 feet.

The eventual birdie was part of a three-birdie stretch from Nos. 10-12.

“I think bunker shots, especially long bunker shots, are a strength of my game, ”Spieth said. “I played a really nice one to get it all the way back there close on 11, but I didn't feel uncomfortable on that at all. I just took a 52-degree and hit a pretty standard shot, landed it on the downgrain and it skipped up.”

Ace Elation

Since the Players moved to TPC Sawgrass in 1982 the 17th hole had 10 aces and on Thursday the 11th occurred when Hayden Buckley holed a pitching wedge in the morning wave.

Saying he felt something like a hole-in-one may happen this week because he was hitting it so well, his reaction was one of elation, unlike his last ace in 2021 in Las Vegas.

“I think a lot of people made fun of me the last time I made a hole-in-one in Vegas my rookie year,” Buckley said. “I didn't have much of a reaction. It was early in the morning, nobody was really out there. I guess I had to have a little bit more of a reaction this time. I had friends and my wife in the crowd, so I had to entertain them a little bit.”

POV: You just made the first ace of the 2023 @THEPLAYERSChamp 🔥 pic.twitter.com/iMkSb05pKk

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 9, 2023

Kitayama Gets Back to Work

Kurt Kitayama made his first trip around Pete Dye’s torture chamber in 73 strokes.

Not the best of starts at 1 over, but considering he was dealing with the thrill of winning his first PGA Tour event last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and then coming to play in the flagship event on the PGA Tour, Kitayama still said he felt pretty good in the morning. But it didn’t start well with a bogey on the par-3 3rd hole and then a triple bogey on the par-4 5th hole where he found the water, contributing to a 41 on the front nine.

“It’s something to get used to,” Kitayama said of the spotlight and attention he received after his win. “It maybe played a factor in the back of my mind today.”

Whatever was the problem, the 30-year-old looked like a seasoned veteran with a back-nine 32 that was highlighted by an eagle on the par-5 16th hole when he made a 15-footer.

With the 1 over finish, Kitayama is near the cut line and will have to play more like he did on the back nine than the front.

“I’m just trying to get a quick bite and then just as much rest as I can,” Kitayama said of his post-first-round plans. “The week has been so hectic and the way how hard last week was, it’s been draining for sure.”

Tidbits

> Due to darkness, the first round was suspended at 6:28 p.m. ET with 21 players yet to complete their round. The first round will resume at 7:40 a.m. Friday. The second round will begin at 6:50 a.m.

> Collin Morikawa (2nd/-7) carded his lowest round at the Players Championship in his third start

> Chad Ramey (1st/-8) is the 11th player to shoot 64 or better in the first round of the Players Championship on record (since 1983) and first since Jason Day in 2016 (63); four of the previous 10 went on to win.

> 15 First-round leaders/co-leaders have gone on to win the Players Championship (most recent: Webb Simpson, 2018)

> World No. 1 Jon Rahm (No. 1 SIWGR), seeking his fourth win of the season, opened with 1-under 71 and sits T32. Rahm entered the week having finished in the top 10 in six of his last seven starts on the PGA Tour.