BLAINE, Minn. — Lee Hodges bought off to a great begin in his bid to make the FedEx Cup playoffs, capturing an 8-under 63 on Thursday for a one-stroke lead within the first spherical of the 3M Open.
Two-time main champion Justin Thomas, who’s making an attempt to make each the playoffs and the U.S. Ryder Cup crew, opened with a 69 in windier afternoon situations on the TPC Twin Cities.
Kevin Streelman had the most effective of the afternoon rounds with a 64, matching Hideki Matsuyama, Brandt Snedeker and Tyler Duncan. Emiliano Grillo, Nick Hardy and Justin Suh have been one other shot again, and defending champion Tony Finau was one in every of 9 gamers to shoot 66.
Hodges entered the week having missed the reduce in three of his previous 4 tournaments and 14 of 29 occasions this season. He is 74th within the FedEx Cup standings; the highest 70 will make the playoffs that start in two weeks.
He bought off to a scorching begin with back-to-back birdies.
“To see that wedge shot go to an inch on the primary gap after which make that 40-footer on the second gap, I used to be like, ‘All proper, right here we go, would possibly as nicely make loads of birdies if we’re gonna make a pair,'” Hodges mentioned.
Finau was 5 beneath by his first 4 holes however stalled from there.
“I did not miss a shot for the primary seven holes actually. That was a fairly scorching begin, it was a pleasant method to begin my title protection this week and form of calmed my nerves,” Finau mentioned.
Together with winds topping 20 mph, gamers within the afternoon needed to take care of a warmth index of 105 levels Fahrenheit.
“To get out early the place we had just a few holes the place we did not should take care of wind is fairly key and simply benefit from these holes,” mentioned Suh, additionally a part of the morning wave.
Matsuyama wanted some heat-related consideration after his spherical however tour officers mentioned it was nothing severe.
“It bought actually scorching on the market on the again 9. I will chill out this afternoon and hopefully get able to play nicely once more tomorrow,” Matsuyama mentioned.
Taking part in for the sixth time after sternum surgical procedure that sidelined him for 9 months, the 42-year-old Snedeker was coming off 4 straight missed cuts. He had six birdies over eight holes across the flip.
“I knew it was going to be just a little studying curve coming again, and took just a little longer than I needed to, however lastly in a position to put a spherical collectively in the present day,” Snedeker mentioned. “It was coming, and it was good to see some putts go in and form of have a straightforward stress-free spherical the place I hit the ball rather well, did not do something poorly all day.”
Thomas is No. 75 within the FedEx Cup standings. He was grouped with one other struggling main champion, Gary Woodland (No. 90), who shot 72. Billy Horschel, who entered at No. 119, was among the many group at 66.
Sepp Straka, coming off a tie for second within the British Open, rallied for an even-par 71.
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