Sanderson Farms Championship leaderboard: 3 things to know after Thursday’s first round

Theegala graduated from Pepperdine last year, and is making his second appearance at the Sanderson Farms Championship, after playing on a sponsor’s exemption last year.

How’d the big names play?

Sergio Garcia, fresh off his 3-1-0 Ryder Cup performance, could probably use a long nap. But he’s the defending champion this week, and fired a respectable opening round of two-under 70.

Other notables in contention include U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland (-5), Nick Watney (-7), Harold Varner III (-7), Si Woo Kim (-6), Adam Hadwin (-5), Sungjae Im (-5), Corey Connors (-5) and Lucas Glover (-5), all of who are within three shots of the lead. Matthew Wolff (-4) and Will Zalatoris (-2) and four and six shots behind, respectively.

Must watch: This buttery bunker shot

Sometimes, Tour pros hit shots that make the line between themselves and us regular recreational players look about a mile long. This is one of them.

Behold, Chesson Hadley’s elegant brush in the greenside bunker. Is that smooth or what?

Hadley holed the shot for birdie on the par-4 15th, en route to an opening round of three-under 69. Yep, these guys are good indeed.

Golf.com

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.