The First Cut is the Deepest

That's an antique tune written with the aid of Cat Stevens and recorded by some of singers -- I generally think about the Rod Stewart model -- however it actually describes the first PGA Tour event of the new season. The reduce at the Frys.Com Open fell at -2 which I find extremely good, particularly given the problems gamers appear to have had analyzing putts on Silverado's greens.

While the huge names (Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose) are in competition just like we'd anticipate, the leaderboard is filled with the combination of different gamers we're used to seeing in those early events:

• Past winners like Jhonattan Vegas, playing on a past champions exemption this year, and Russell Henley, who's still trying to hit his stride
• Up-and-comers like Justin Thomas and journeymen like Graham DeLaet, both seeking their first wins
• New faces fresh off the Web.com Tour like Harold Varner III, who's a North Carolina boy like me!

And of course there's the leader, Brendan Steele, a one-time winner hunting for his second. Brendan shot a 62 in the first round but could only muster a 70 in round two. He currently sits at -11; historically, the lowest winning score has been -18 so we're unlikely to see a lot of really low scores in the next two days. The second round was a tough one for most of the players, as it usually is.

Likewise, over at the LPGA event -- in order to have finished its 1/3 spherical by the point you examine this -- the girls are not finding many low scores both. First round chief Sung Hyun Park, who became preserving her own towards long-hitting playing partners Lexi Thompson and Gerina Piller, shot a -10 spherical of sixty two on Thursday however fell lower back with a 2 round on Friday. Lydia Ko slowly picked her manner to the top of the leaderboard with rounds of 69-sixty five (-10 after two rounds), but Park changed into making a return inside the third round. There's no reduce at this LPGA occasion, so a low score should get nearly anyone into the combination.

By evaluation, over in Portugal, Andy Sullivan shot back-to-back 64s to take the lead... However that didn't stop numerous different gamers from shooting 64s as properly. The cut at the Portugal Masters turned into almost as low as the Frys.Com, falling at -1. But horrific climate is on the manner to the European Tour event, terrible enough that the Tour plans on a shotgun start to try and get gamers round earlier than the worst of it hits. Scores probable might not be so exact in the 1/3 spherical!

Overall plainly this week's fields -- whether you are speaking PGA Tour, ET or LPGA -- are going quite low on tough publications at a time of year while you'll count on fatigue to be a issue. The actual question is whether or not the chase packs can preserve it up and positioned a few strain on the leaders this weekend.