David Lingmerth once again relied on his accuracy off the tee on Thursday to shoot a 5-under 65 and take the first-round lead at the Quicken Loans National.
He won a 2012 Web.com Tour event on the same tight, tricky layout near Washington, and hit 12 of 14 fairways, which tied for best in the field. Starting on the back nine in the afternoon, he made five birdies in a seven-hole stretch beginning at the 13th hole, three of them from inside 7 feet.
‘I feel like that’s kind of one of my strengths, a thing I pride myself in, hitting a lot of fairways,’ Lingmerth said. ‘I like this type of golf course when you can see the definition, you can zone in on your targets. You’ve really got to stay committed off the tee.
The lone South African in the field this week, Tyrone Van Aswegen, opened with a 72.
Troy Merritt, the winner two years ago at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, was a stroke back, along with Marc Leishman, Johnson Wagner, Sung Kang, Nick Taylor and Daniel Summerhays.
TPC Potomac is hosting the event for the first time and has been extensively redesigned since it last welcomed the PGA TOUR in 2006. It presented a stern test amid sunny, breezy conditions on Thursday. Slight misses off the tee were severely punished, and as the weather heated up, even wedge shots were bouncing and releasing on the greens.
Leishman, the big-hitting Australian who won the Arnold Palmer Invitational this year, welcomed the challenge.
‘It’s getting pretty baked, which is great. It feels a lot like Melbourne, actually,’ Leishman said. ‘You can hear that real, you know, the hard sound when the ball hits the green. You’ve got that purplish color, especially by the end of the day. It’s great. I’m enjoying it.’
Opening round of the Quicken Loans National:
65 – David Lingmerth (SWE)
66 – Troy Merritt, Marc Leishman (AUS), Johnson Wagner, Kang Sung (KOR), Nick Taylor (CAN), Daniel Summerhays
67 – Russell Henley, Zac Blair, Martin Laird (SCO), Geoff Ogilvy (AUS), Patrick Reed, James Hahn, Bryson DeChambeau
68 – Martin Flores, Ricky Barnes, Lucas Glover, Sam Saunders, Curtis Luck, Grayson Murray, Matt Jones (AUS), Mackenzie Hughes (CAN), Ben Martin, Kevin Streelman, Arjun Atwal (IND)
69 – Jason Gore, Bud Cauley, Tony Finau, D.A. Points, Michael Kim, Bill Haas
Photo: Getty Images
