BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Courtesy of his lowest score among 22 rounds of Dick’s Sporting Goods Open competition, Joe Durant played his way to a three-stroke lead on Friday’s Day 1 of the PGA Tour Champions event at En-Joie Golf Course.
A nine-birdie, one-bogey showing brought the 59-year-old a spiffy 64, with Ernie Els and Jason Schultz next-best after matching 5-under 67s.
Round 1 was played devoid of interruption. As for Round 2, with rain-drenched conditions in the forecast, time will tell. Another two-tee start is to begin at 7:09 a.m., with the leading trio scheduled to head off No. 1 at 9:15.
Contenders include Darren Clarke, Vijay Singh, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Paul Broadhurst, all at 68, as well as defending champion Padraig Harrington (69).
Durant, a four-time winner since joining the senior tour in 2014, shared fourth place in the most recent event, the American Family Insurance Championship (68-65-72). His low Dick’s Open round had been a 65 in Round 3 of the 2018 event (T-8), and his top finish was a T-4 in 2016.
“I think the putter definitely cooperated today,” he said. “I didn’t drive it that great. This is a tough driving golf course. The fairways are pretty narrow and if you just peel it a little bit one way or the other you tend to miss some fairways.
“But I hit some really good recovery shots from the first cuts and whatnot. We did have ball-in-hand, which, you know, to protect the weather possibly coming against us, so that made it a little easier to score. I played really well. I just scored well, I stayed patient and made a lot of birdies.”
From here?
“You know what? I’m just trying to resurrect my golf game right now. I’ve really struggled the first half of the season. I played well in Madison two weeks ago. I’m starting to see many signs of life, but I still have a lot to work on. I’m just trying to put one foot in front of the other right now, just see some good scores and just see what happens, really.”
Durant, bothered of late by a knee injury, was 6 under without a bogey through 10, dropped a shot at the 11th but made birdie on three of his last four.
Els is playing his third Dick’s Open. Friday’s effort marked his fifth 68 or better in seven DSGO rounds. He was runner-up in 2021 and T-15 last year with a closing 73.
“It’s just an old traditional type of golf course that we used to play on the Tour back in the day,” he said of how En-Joie suits his game. “They haven’t made too many changes out here. With technology, you know, we stay current the way we used to play it back in the ’90s. It’s just a nice, fun golf course.
“You can get on a run, as I say, but there’s some holes that are sneaky. You’ve got to move the ball right to left and left to right. I’ve always kind of liked that, I can move it both ways. I’ve just got to get the putter warmed up and hopefully, we’ll go one better than two years ago.”
Schultz, a 50-year-old playing his third PGA Tour Champions event, shared ninth in the Principal Charily Classic early this month. He played the back side first, shot 34, then made four birdies on the front, including a sweep of the par-5 third, fifth and eighth holes.
“I started driving it better, and so I was getting in positions where I could get at some of the par-5s and I was able to put myself in positions off the tee basically to kind of change, swing the round around pretty quick,” he said.
As for the weekend? “Just stay aggressive and take advantage of the spots when I got them and try to make as many birdies as I possibly can,” he said.
Brett Quigley is part of a 10-way pack at 68 despite three back-nine bogeys. He was 5 under without a bogey through the 10th.
“They did the right thing moving the tee times up today,” he said. “Looked like it was going to sock in there for a little while. Thankfully it just went around us or broke up, so we got lucky. Yeah, we’re all looking at that this whole weekend, especially hoping to get all the rounds in.”
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Spanish