There’s a lot of championship hardware sitting atop the leaderboard of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, the final event of the season on the Champions Tour.
Jim Furyk, Kirk Triplett and Phil Mickelson all shot 65s in Thursday’s first round in Phoenix, sitting at 6 under par.
They lead a pack of five players tied for fourth at 5 under. Another six players are T9, just two shots back after 18 holes at the Phoenix Country Club. The $2.5 million event will be four rounds.
Mickelson tops the trophy list of the leaders by far — 45 PGA Tour victories, six majors — but Furyk and Triplett are decorated in their own right. Furyk boasts 17 wins on the PGA Tour, a major victory and the FedEx Cup Championship. Triplett has eight Champions Tour victories after a snagging three on the PGA Tour.
Triplett carded the only clean round amongst the three, with Mickelson and Furyk finishing with a bogey each.
“I really had a lot of fun today,” Mickelson said. “To play a golf course where you can play some holes aggressive, there are a few parallel fairways, I like that. It allows me to be a little bit more aggressive and play to some safer areas. And then I’m able to take advantage of some short iron play, so I ended up making some birdies. … So this was a good, solid start, but I’m excited to get back out here and make another run at it.”
Furyk finished with seven birdies against his lone bogey on the par-3 second.
“Good, good solid round. Not a lot of mistakes today,” Furyk said. “Hit a couple bad putts on the back nine at 12 and that bothered me a little bit. A couple bad drives at 17 and 18, but overall I hit the ball extremely well today. … A little longer event for us this week in that it’s a four-round event instead of a three, so just kind of be patient all week and get ready to go for four rounds.”
Triplett let his scoring do the talking.
“I don’t know what else to say. It was a beautiful day,” Triplett said. “Scores are going to be good and I’m sure there will be scores lower than mine, but I’m thrilled to shoot 65.”
Another six players – including South Africa’s Ernie Els and Germany’s Bernhard Langer — sit just three shots back at 3 under. Langer leads the Schwab Cup points standings entering the season finale, with Furyk right behind in second.
–Field Level Media
