Herbert soars to first round lead as stars Homa and Thomas have up-and-down first rounds at Fortinet Championship
By Kyle Foster
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In previous years, the Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort and Spa’s North Course has been the season-opening event. This meant it was a way for players on the PGA Tour to get their seasons off to a good start.
But things change. One of those many changes is the tournament, which is again part of the PGA Tour Fall. On the line now is getting locked into designated events and an exemption on the Tour.
Because of this, each player here has a different agenda. In the instance of two-time winner Max Homa, he is here simply to defend the title that he’s owned for the last two years.
Speaking of Homa, he went out in the morning tee times. He didn’t exactly make a point that he’s the person to beat. However, he did still finish with two-under, 70 on the day. The big blunder on the day came on the 14th hole where Homa shanked his tee shot 289 yards out of bounds, which required him to take a drop. He ended up missing a putt from 7 feet, 10 inches away that forced him to double bogey the 367-yard par 4 13th.
The only other blemish on Homa’s scorecard came on the fifth hole where he bogeyed the par 5. Other than that, he had five birdies as part of an up-and-down first round.
“Yeah, I didn’t feel super — I only had two or three over-par holes, I guess,” Homa explained. “It didn’t feel like that crazy, just one bad swing that led to a double and then a bad wedge shot that was quite frustrating. But other than that, I actually felt like I kept it in front of me pretty good. Didn’t do anything special to get going anywhere, but overall it was solid. I don’t think anything stuck out as overly bad or overly great. It was a decent day.”
The other star at the event is Justin Thomas. He is here to not only prepare for the upcoming Ryder Cup but to claw his way back into the top 70 in points after failing to make the FedexCup Playoffs in 2023. He is here trying to get back into the designated big-money events that will take place next season. Thomas is already exempt due to his win at the PGA Championship in 2022.
With an afternoon tee time, Thomas didn’t get off to a fast start. On the front nine, pretty much all of Thomas’s tee shots went wide to the left into the second cut of grass. As he made it to the back nine, things changed a bit. Over the final ten holes of the day, he had three birdies to go along with a birdie at 6 and a bogey at nine to finish with a three-under 69.
“I thought I managed it very well. I didn’t, didn’t hit particularly well, especially the front nine, but kind of kept searching, kept fighting, kept fighting,” Thomas said of his first round. “I felt like I was close, and some of those drives I was just missing left. I was managing my game well. I felt that’s exactly what I did at the Wyndham. Today wasn’t a day with how I hit it I was going to shoot 6 or 7 under. I just needed to make sure that I managed a decent score, and 3 under with how I feel like I hit it is a great thing.”
Making an early statement in the morning was Lucas Herbert. In the round, he had 10 birdies with the lone slip-up coming at the 6th hole that he bogeyed. Herbert caught fire on the back nine where he made 7 birdies. All of this gave him the first-round lead.
“Yeah, found a little groove there,” Herbert said of the back nine where he was able to score. “It felt like anything I did poorly seemed to work out nicely for me and the good shots got rewarded as well. Yeah, I didn’t feel like I played bad, felt like I played OK and just got a lot of good breaks, and yeah, capitalized on chances as well.”
Herbert did this by only hitting 8 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens in regulation. To say some things worked out would be true. He also made 144 feet worth of putts in the round.
“No, look, I just tried to play the shot rather than the context as much as I could out there today and that was probably just the difference I felt like,” Herbert said of his approach. “Yeah, I didn’t sort of let the score or scoreboard worry me too much and just played nice and freely, which I was really happy with.”
The vast majority of players are in Napa trying to get into the top 125 so they can play in every full-field event in 2024.
In the second round on Friday, tee times will be reversed. After Friday’s second round, the field will be cut in half for the weekend. Live coverage will be on Golf Channel from 3 to 6 pm every day.
