Louis Oosthuizen started the first FedEx Cup playoff at The Northern Trust in emphatic fashion after carding a six-under-par 65 for his opening round on Thursday, writes ANDRE HUISAMEN.
The TPC Boston course presented a lot of scoring opportunities and the players seemed to make the most of it as low rounds swept through the opening day’s play.
Oosthuizen, who is one shot behind the leaders heading into the second round, managed a bogey-free display by rolling in three birdies on the front nine and three more as he came home.
The South African struggled for large parts on the PGA Tour’s return to action but has been knocking on the door in recent events.
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‘I think it’s been a while where I’ve struggled with drivers and it’s normally a strength of my game, and I couldn’t find a driver that I was happy with and went back to an old driver head I think three, four weeks ago and started hitting the ball decent again,’ Oosthuizen said after his round.
‘I’m hitting fairways and getting more opportunities, hitting greens, rolling the ball nicely today. Everything was just sort of where you’re supposed to be, nothing spectacular, but everything was going fine, going right.
‘It’s a golf course where it suits my eye. I really enjoy it around here. I always feel like when I play here I play a little better for some reason. So you get those golf courses where you just feel that comfortable on, and this is definitely one of them. You know, a good start here this week was really important for me.’
A group of four players has, however, taken a share of the lead with Harris English, Kevin Streelman, Cameron Davis and Russell Henly at the top of the leaderboard on seven under par.
Dylan Frittelli, who is part of one of the featured groups for the opening two rounds of The Northern Trust, hit the ground running alongside Tiger Woods in what promised to be a big occasion for the South African.
And he did an excellent job by opening his account with a two-under-par 69 on Thursday as Woods also started on the front foot with a 68.
