Keegan Bradley, who traditionally starts well but finishes poorly at the Valspar Championship, produced another strong opening round at the Palm Harbor event on Thursday.
Bradley shot a seven-under-par 64 at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course to take a two-stroke lead over five players. Ryan Moore, Max Homa, Patton Kizzire, Hank Lebioda and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo each shot five-under.
The long Irish player in the field – Graeme McDowell – will have work to do to make the cut after a disappointing finish saw him card a round of 74. After going out in one under par with three birdies and two bogeys, McDowell then dropped shots at the 11th and 13th. He picked up a birdie at the 14th but then came unstuck over the famously tough closing stretch with a bogey at the 16th before making a double bogey five at the Par 3 17th. In the end it all added up to a round of three over par, leaving him well off the pace.
Meanwhile, Bradley was tied for first in the Valspar Championship after the opening day in 2016, and he subsequently missed the cut. It’s the fifth consecutive time he’s been tied for sixth or better after the first round, yet he’s never finished better than a tie for 31st after the previous four occurrences.
This week he’ll be hoping to go better than that after a bogey-free round on Thursday. He was just two-under through 11 holes, but he birdied five of the final seven, including a run of three consecutive birdies on the 14th, 15th and 16th.
“Today was an all-around just great day,” he said. “Basically zero stress the whole day. I didn’t really come close to making a bogey, so that was a really fun day to be out there and playing.
“I know that I’m going to have some bogeys and some stress coming, but as for today, I played so good and it feels good to go around a course like this and shoot that score. This is a tough track, demands a lot ball-striking-wise and I did that today.”
Collated first round scores from the Valspar Championship (USA unless stated, par 71):
64 Keegan Bradley
66 Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Max Homa, Patton Kizzire, Hank Lebioda, Ryan Moore
67 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Scott Brown, Sam Burns, Kramer Hickok, Jason Kokrak, Ted Potter Jr., Scott Stallings
68 Paul Casey (Eng), Charley Hoffman, Beau Hossler, Sungjae Im (Kor), Zach Johnson, Kevin Kisner, Chase Koepka, Troy Merritt, Kevin Na, Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Pat Perez, J.T. Poston, Doc Redman, Kyle Stanley
69 Wesley Bryan, Wyndham Clark, Luke Donald (Eng), Michael Gligic (Can), Lucas Glover, Branden Grace (Rsa), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Russell Knox (Sco), Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor), Henrik Norlander (Swe), Ian Poulter (Eng), Brandt Snedeker, Nick Taylor (Can), Justin Thomas, Cameron Tringale, Vincent Whaley, J.J. Spaun
70 Byeong Hun An (Kor), Corey Conners (Can), Jason Dufner, Tyler Duncan, David Hearn (Can), J.B. Holmes, Charles Howell I I I(USA), Chris Kirk, Danny Lee (Nzl), Tom Lewis (Eng), William McGirt, Keith Mitchell, Matthew NeSmith, Ryan Palmer, Patrick Reed, Patrick Rodgers, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Vaughn Taylor, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven), Bubba Watson, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha)
71 Joseph Bramlett, Bronson Burgoon, K.J. Choi (Kor), Sam Horsfield (Eng), Dustin Johnson, Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor), Satoshi Kodaira (Jpn), Kelly Kraft, Hunter Mahan, Peter Malnati, Sean O’Hair, D.A. Points, Andrew Putnam, Rory Sabbatini (Svk), Adam Schenk, Henrik Stenson (Swe), Brian Stuard, Hudson Swafford, Bo Van Pelt, Camilo Villegas (Col), Danny Willett (Eng), Tim Wilkinson (Nzl)
72 Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Jonas Blixt (Swe), Austin Cook, Doug Ghim, Bo Hoag, Tom Hoge, Andrew Landry, Luke List, Adam Long, Jamie Lovemark, Denny McCarthy, Rob Oppenheim, Sam Ryder, Kevin Streelman, D.J. Trahan, Kristoffer Ventura (Nor), Jimmy Walker, Nick Watney, Xinjun Zhang (Chn), Brad Adamonis, Ryan Brehm, Rhein Gibson (Aus)
73 Rafael Cabrera (Spa), Rafael Campos (Pur), Brian Gay, Talor Gooch, Lanto Griffin, Chesson Hadley, Adam Hadwin (Can), Rasmus Hojgaard (Den), Michael Kim, Martin Laird (Sco), Phil Mickelson, Alexander Noren (Swe), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Scottie Scheffler, Chase Seiffert, Roger Sloan (Can), Martin Trainer, Peter Uihlein, Daniel Chopra (Swe)
74 John Augenstein, Cameron Davis (Aus), Brandon Hagy, Russell Henley, Mark Hubbard, Graeme McDowell (NIrl), Cameron Percy (Aus), Justin Rose (Eng), Robby Shelton, Kevin Tway, Erik van Rooyen (Rsa), Michael Visacki, Sebastian Cappelen (Den)
75 James Hahn, Scott Harrington, Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Grayson Murray, Chez Reavie, Kevin Stadler
76 Ryan Armour, Scott Piercy
77 John Huh, Rod Perry, Richy Werenski, Gary Woodland, Nelson Ledesma (Arg)
78 Jordan Hahn
79 Jim Herman
