The Northern Trust R1

Northern Trust 2021 R1
August 19-22
Liberty National Golf Club, Jersey City, New Jersey
$9,500,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas both signed for an opening 8-under par 63 to share the lead at the Northern Trust, the first event in the Playoffs.

Rahm is playing for the first time since he took enforced time off due to Covid-19 and missed out on the Olympics but there was no sign of that in his bogey-free first round.

Northern Trust 2021 R1

Thomas, who suffered putting problems earlier in the year, found himself taking the advice of a teenager and is playing with his old putter this week.

“And I found myself defending myself to this 15-year-old. I was like, ‘Why am I not using this thing?’ It’s not like I’m making a lot of putts with what I have. If you’re putting well, any of us can go out and putt with anything.”

Northern Trust 2021 R1

Not every putt was a winner but his nine birdies and one bogey carded him his lowest round since he signed for a 62 in Mexico at the Mayakoba Golf Classic last December.

Harold Varner III is in solo third place after signing for a 66. He is currently in 72nd place in the FedExCup standings with only the top 70 moving on to next week’s tournament.

Northern Trust 2021 R1

Bryson DeChambeau had a very uneven round, firing nine birdies, parring the 4th and 10th holes and suffering from five bogeys and two double bogeys at the par-4s 9th and 12th for a round of 71 and a share of 52nd place.

He is the first player in ten years to shoot par or better with two pars or fewer.

Reigning FedExCup champion Dustin Johnson noticed a crack in his driver minutes before starting his round and headed to the first tee with his next-longest club, a 5-wood. Luckily he had a 3-wood in his car which was delivered to him in time to play the third hole.

“(It) threw me for a loop there because it was literally 10 minutes before I was teeing off when it happened,” he said.

“Driver fatigue will occur over time, of course, for these guys that are hitting so many shots,” said a TaylorMade spokesman. “We do regularly test all of our athletes’ product prior to most tournaments unless a player requests us to provide a new gamer for him. On this occasion, Dustin noticed a fine crack prior to play. He was able to switch into a strong 3-wood that he is using today.”

Northern Trust 2021 R1

The wind at Liberty National was a particular worry as the 3-wood’s higher trajectory is more affected by it but Johnson managed to play four birdies and three bogeys for a 71 and a T34 place at 1-under.

“It wasn’t too bad,” he said. “I figured out a way to shoot a decent score.”

Patrick Reed withdrew citing an ankle injury for the second week running. He is currently 9th in the U.S. Team’s Ryder Cup rankings and players have through the BMW Championship next week to make it to the top six and an automatic qualification. Team captain Steve Stricker will select and announce the remaining six members team after the season-ending Tour Championship.

Captain America will be hoping for a good result after resting his ankle to at least capture Stricker’s attention and make it to Whistling Straits in September.

Northern Trust 2021 R1

Pos.	Player	To Par	R1
T1	Jon Rahm	-8	63
T1	Justin Thomas	-8	63
3	Harold Varner III *	-5	66
T4	Tony Finau *	-4	67
T4	Mackenzie Hughes *	-4	67
T4	Kevin Na *	-4	67
T4	Adam Scott *	-4	67
T4	Robert Streb	-4	67
T4	Cameron Tringale	-4	67
T10	Patrick Cantlay *	-3	68
T10	Cameron Champ *	-3	68
T10	Viktor Hovland *	-3	68
T10	Keith Mitchell	-3	68
T10	Sebastián Muñoz	-3	68
T15	Keegan Bradley	-2	69
T15	Cam Davis *	-2	69
T15	Harris English	-2	69
T15	Lanto Griffin	-2	69
T15	Russell Henley	-2	69
T15	Garrick Higgo *	-2	69
T15	Harry Higgs *	-2	69
T15	Tom Hoge	-2	69
T15	Anirban Lahiri *	-2	69
T15	Marc Leishman	-2	69
T15	Hideki Matsuyama *	-2	69
T15	Maverick McNealy	-2	69
T15	Alex Noren *	-2	69
T15	Carlos Ortiz *	-2	69
T15	Andrew Putnam *	-2	69
T15	Cameron Smith *	-2	69
T15	Kevin Streelman	-2	69
T15	Aaron Wise	-2	69
T15	Erik van Rooyen *	-2	69
T34	Paul Casey	-1	70
T34	Corey Conners	-1	70
T34	Joel Dahmen	-1	70
T34	Dylan Frittelli	-1	70
T34	Emiliano Grillo *	-1	70
T34	Dustin Johnson	-1	70
T34	Zach Johnson *	-1	70
T34	Patton Kizzire *	-1	70
T34	Russell Knox *	-1	70
T34	Brooks Koepka *	-1	70
T34	Jason Kokrak *	-1	70
T34	Peter Malnati	-1	70
T34	Henrik Norlander	-1	70
T34	Seamus Power *	-1	70
T34	Xander Schauffele *	-1	70
T34	Scottie Scheffler	-1	70
T34	Jhonattan Vegas *	-1	70
T34	Lee Westwood *	-1	70
T52	Daniel Berger	E	71
T52	Sam Burns	E	71
T52	Stewart Cink	E	71
T52	Bryson DeChambeau	E	71
T52	Doug Ghim	E	71
T52	Branden Grace	E	71
T52	James Hahn *	E	71
T52	Billy Horschel *	E	71
T52	Sungjae Im *	E	71
T52	K.H. Lee	E	71
T52	Luke List	E	71
T52	Shane Lowry *	E	71
T52	Rory McIlroy	E	71
T52	Joaquin Niemann	E	71
T52	Pat Perez	E	71
T52	Scott Piercy	E	71
T52	Chez Reavie *	E	71
T52	Hudson Swafford *	E	71
T52	Bubba Watson *	E	71
T52	Gary Woodland *	E	71
T72	Abraham Ancer	+1	72
T72	Brice Garnett	+1	72
T72	Brian Gay *	+1	72
T72	Brian Harman *	+1	72
T72	Tyrrell Hatton	+1	72
T72	Kramer Hickok *	+1	72
T72	Si Woo Kim *	+1	72
T72	Chris Kirk *	+1	72
T72	Adam Long	+1	72
T72	Tyler McCumber	+1	72
T72	Troy Merritt	+1	72
T72	Ian Poulter	+1	72
T72	Sam Ryder	+1	72
T72	Charl Schwartzel *	+1	72
T72	Webb Simpson	+1	72
T72	Brandt Snedeker *	+1	72
T72	Jordan Spieth *	+1	72
T89	Jason Day	+2	73
T89	Matt Fitzpatrick	+2	73
T89	Talor Gooch	+2	73
T89	Charley Hoffman	+2	73
T89	Martin Laird *	+2	73
T89	Denny McCarthy *	+2	73
T89	Phil Mickelson *	+2	73
T89	Ryan Palmer	+2	73
T89	Doc Redman	+2	73
T89	Adam Schenk	+2	73
T89	Sepp Straka *	+2	73
T89	Brian Stuard	+2	73
T89	Brendon Todd *	+2	73
T102	Lucas Glover *	+3	74
T102	Max Homa	+3	74
T102	Collin Morikawa *	+3	74
T102	Matthew NeSmith	+3	74
T102	C.T. Pan	+3	74
T102	Scott Stallings *	+3	74
T108	Sergio Garcia *	+4	75
T108	Chesson Hadley *	+4	75
T108	Adam Hadwin *	+4	75
T108	Matt Kuchar *	+4	75
T108	Kyle Stanley *	+4	75
T113	Kevin Kisner *	+5	76
T113	Hank Lebioda	+5	76
T113	J.T. Poston	+5	76
T113	Richy Werenski	+5	76
T113	Matthew Wolff	+5	76
T118	Wyndham Clark *	+7	78
T118	Brandon Hagy *	+7	78
T118	Brendan Steele *	+7	78
T121	Matt Jones *	+8	79
T121	Roger Sloan	+8	79
WD	Matt Wallace	E
* Player started on the back nine