Tommy Fleetwood, Tom Hoge surge to clubhouse lead after soggy start to Players Championship

When golf was played on Thursday at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, it was entertaining.

A late start and a late morning interruption caused by rain and storms burned more than five hours of daylight in the first round of The Players Championship, and Friday’s weather forecast calls for more of the same.

But after a total of 1.75 inches of rain fell on the course between Wednesday night and mid-afternoon Thursday, the fact that 69 of the 72 players in the morning wave were able to finish their first rounds was likely viewed as a bonus to finish the tournament on time Sunday night.

Of those who did, a group with a ton of game but a dearth of PGA Tour hardware are on top, led by a couple of guys christened Thomas at birth.

Tom Hoge, who broke through with his first PGA Tour title at Pebble Beach after more than 200 career starts, and Tommy Fleetwood of England, who has eight worldwide victories but is still looking for his first on the PGA Tour, are tied in the clubhouse at 6-under 66.

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Kramer Hickok and Anirban Lahiri, who also are chasing their first PGA Tour victories, are tied at 5-under with Keith Mitchell of St. Simons Island, Ga., (one victory) and Joaquin Niemann of Chile (two). The next three players to complete their rounds at 4-under, Brian Harman of St. Simons Island, Sam Burns and Abraham Ancer, have combined for five titles.

Rain plagues first day at TPC Sawgrass with more on the way

Play began an hour late at 7:45 while the grounds crew completed preparing the course following rainfall of 1.3 inches overnight. They got 3 hours, 15 minutes of golf, then were pulled in when dangerous weather hit the area at 11 a.m.

The field was able to return at 3:14 p.m. and played until 6:36, when the round was suspended because of darkness. Four scheduled afternoon groups had not teed off for their first rounds and one morning group did not finish. Taylor Pendrith, Henrik Norlander and Hank Lebioda.

The first round will resume at 7:15 a.m. and it’s estimated that the early wave of the second round can begin between 11 a.m.-1 p.m. -- provided there are no more weather interruptions.

But there’s a 70 percent chance of more rain for Friday.

With soft greens, light winds when the field returned in the afternoon and the Tour’s preferred lies policy in place, 16 players who finished their round shot in the 60s (last year, only 10 did, with the full field finishing) and 40 finished under par.

“It just is what it is,” said Mitchell, one of the string of former University of Georgia players who have racked up 43 PGA Tour titles since 1996. “There's nothing you can do. You can't control it. We just hung out in the locker room and just had a good time for a couple hours, had some lunch and had no wind when we came out, which was huge. Greens were soft. Really the only tough shot with soft greens was 17 just because it's so hard to keep it on the top shelf without spinning it down. All in all, just glad to be done, obviously.”

Hoge, Fleetwood find comfort to sit atop TPC scoreboard

Hoge, 35, said he’s feeling more comfortable on the Stadium Course.

“Certainly nice to come back and have a little familiarity with the tournament and the golf course and the area,” he said. “I feel like it's a golf course that suits me really well, so I'm always excited to show up here.”

Mitchell had a share of the lead until a bogey at the last. He was the only player to eagle No. 9, on a 21-foot putt.

Hoge put on a long-ball display on key driving holes. He eagled the par-5 second on a 41-foot putt, two-putted for birdie at the par-5 16th and the short par-4 12th, and finished with two birdies among his last three holes.

But Fleetwood has the most recent vibes of playing well on the Stadium. Prior to missing his first cut in The Players last year, he made three in a row and tied for seventh in 2018 and for fifth in 2019.

Fleetwood was in contention in the latter tournament until hitting his tee shot in the water at No. 17, opening the door for winner Rory McIlroy.

He made three of his birdies in what are traditionally some of the most difficult holes. He chipped in for birdie at the 18th hole, dropped a 7-footer for birdie at No. 5 and drained a 24-footer for birdie at No. 8.

“I would say it's very much a ball striker's golf course,” he said. “I think my strengths over the years have always been hitting it in play off the tee. Very consistent, hit a lot of greens with my irons and never really put myself in too much trouble and have a very sort of patient attitude and mindset. I love this golf course. I really, really do. If you play well, you get rewarded, and if you play poorly, you're going to struggle to make a score. I think it's major-like in that sense.”

And as usual, tame conditions didn’t prevent disasters. Harold Varner III was 7-under with a two-shot lead on the 17th tee. He left the 18th green at 3-under after a triple-bogey on the 17th and a bogey on the 18th.

“I've seen it a thousand times,” said Varner. “Just happened to be me this time. There will be more balls in there. Might be mine. Might be someone else's.”

14 balls enter water on the 'island hole'

Speaking of which, 14 balls found the water at No. 17, 12 of them tee shots, as players struggled to keep their balls from spinning back into the pond – which is exactly what happened to Varner.

It requires some scrolling down the leaderboard to find golf blue-bloods. The lowest scores from past major champions are 69s by world No. 1-ranked Jon Rahm and Louis Oosthuizen. The lowest score by a past Players champion is Sergio Garcia with a 71.

Stars such as Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth had played only a handful of holes before the final suspension. The last two champions, Justin Thomas (2021) and Rory McIlroy (2019) were even through two holes.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Players Championship 2022: Tommy Fleetwood, Tom Hoge lead after Day 1