Chad Ramey had a Players Championship debut for the ages after the American posted an 8 under par 64 to sit atop the leaderboard following the first round of the PGA Tour’s flagship event.
Coming into the event Ramey had missed the cut in seven of his previous ten starts, but impressed on his maiden outing at TPC Sawgrass by carding eight birdies and going bogey-free to open up a one-stroke lead over 2021 Race to Dubai champion Collin Morikawa.
“Not easy at all,” said Ramey, who is ranked 2225th in the world.
“I might have made it look that way but it wasn’t easy at all. It was fun, first time to shoot a score on such an iconic course like this – you can’t ask for any more.”
Ben Griffin finished with three birdies to move to a share of third on five under alongside Justin Suh and Canada’s Taylor Pendrith, with Scottie Scheffler in a group on four under after coming out on top of his heavyweight three-ball against Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy.
It was a day to forget for McIlroy as he stumbled to 4 over par 76, finishing 12 shots behind Ramey at the top of the leaderboard.
Rory McIlroy stumbled to a four-over par 76 to finish 12 shots behind round one clubhouse leader Chad Ramey at the PGA Tour’s Players Championship.
The Northern Irishman opened with a double-bogey six and went on to endure an erratic day off the tee, with only nine players posting a higher total than the four-time Major champion during the morning wave.
“I wish I could use my driver from last year, but I can’t just because – you use a driver for so long, and it starts to get a little too — basically it just wouldn’t pass the test,” McIlroy explained to reporters.
“These driver heads are so finicky, it’s hard to get one exactly the same. I’m obviously trying my best, trying to get something that’s as close to what I had last year. Just struggled a little bit off the tee the last couple weeks.
“This one is as close as it’s been. Yeah, there’s obviously a part of it that’s the user, as well. It’s quite a lot of user error in there, as well.
