McKINNEY, Texas – Matt Wallace hated missing the Masters in April but he learned a few important lessons from watching it on TV. Interestingly, he didn’t take pointers from watching world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler’s dominant performance.
“It’s difficult to take a lot from him because he’s playing unbelievable golf,” Wallace said.
Rather, Wallace has tried to mimic the focus of Swedish sensation Ludvig Aberg and it worked wonders in the opening round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Wallace birdied his first three holes and five of the first six out of the gate to race to the top of the leaderboard and shoot 8-under 63 at TPC Craig Ranch for a one-stroke lead on Thursday.
“It’s the dream start you want for any round and from there my mindset was to take care of my business, take care of my shot and not care so much about what the outcome is but just put the best move that I can on it,” Wallace explained.
It’s been a disappointing season for Wallace, who has recorded just one top-25 finish to date and took three weeks off in April to rest his left shoulder, an injury he blamed on “overplaying.”
“Then I slept on it funny at the Cognizant (in early March), and I had to go and get it looked at straightaway. I thought I was going to be out for about six weeks,” he said.
Wallace called his season “terrible,” but he’s been playing long enough to know it’s a long season and there is so much golf to be played.
“I’ve been so far away from where I’ve wanted to be and how I’ve wanted to play that it feels terrible. It’s probably not terrible but it must feels that way,” said Wallace, who claimed he felt a round like this was brewing after his iron play last week at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. “I came in this week with that belief. Things have felt like they were turning around. I know what I can do in this game.” Statistically, Wallace enjoyed his best ball-striking round of the season, and his 63 marked a career-low round.
Overnight rain into the morning delayed the start of the tournament for one hour and officials instituted preferred lies in the fairways for the opening round. That and soft conditions and little wind meant par took a beating.
Here are four more things to know from the first round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Nobody made more birdies than Chesson Hadley on Thursday. The one-time Tour winner birdied half the holes at TPC Craig Ranch, including the par-5 18th, which he reached in two. He smashed 3-wood from 256 yards at 18 for one final birdie en route to shooting 7-under 64.
“That was tingles and jingles,” said Hadley, who also had a stretch where he reeled off five birdies in a row beginning at the fifth. “Landed perfect.” Hadley said he took some swagger that his game has been lacking for the last month or so from a solid finish last week at the Zurich Classic, where he teamed with Greyson Sigg and finished T-8. “I think I played well today because of last week,” said Hadley, who had missed four consecutive cuts before the team event.
“I’m such a huge momentum player.” Hadley is tied for second with Sweden’s Alex Soren and Canada’s Taylor Pendrith.
Defending champion Jason Day posted 5-under 66 and was content with his start. A year ago, he shot 23-under 261 to claim his 13th PGA Tour title. So, Day knows there’s more work to be done.
“I think overall the average winning score is 22 under around here. You kind of have to shoot 5-, 6- a day, somewhere in that region,” he said. “Kind of on par right now, so good. Got three more days left.” Day, who works with Dallas-based instructor Chris Como, said he wasn’t sure whether having Como around this week was a good thing or not.
“I’m still on the fence about whether having my coach at events works, because typically I don’t have any self-control. I’m sure there is a lot of degenerates out there as well that don’t have self-control when they’re working on their swings. I have zero self-control, and I tend to look at too many swings on my phone, get too technical,” he said. “I haven’t found the right formula yet. I feel like I got off to a good start this week.”
Dallas native Jordan Spieth said he was going to hit the reset button after a middling stretch of golf for a player of his caliber. He was rolling early with birdies on three of the first five holes of his round, but then the birdies dried up. He only made one more for the day and played the last five holes in 1 over. Playing the three par 5s in 1 over also left a sour taste in his mouth as Spieth signed for 3-under 68.
“Doesn’t look like we’re going to get a ton of wind or anything, so I am going to have to really make it up, because there will be a lot of guys shooting low scores,” he said.
Rookie Raul Pereda recorded the shot of the day, a hole-in-one at the 236-yard, par-3 seventh. Pereda used a 4-iron for his first hole-in-one on Tour and sixth in his lifetime. Asked what he did with the ball, he said it was tucked safely in his bag. “I’m going to keep that one,” he said. “It’s my first one. I’ll give the other ones away.”
