Gary Woodland shoots even par in Round 1 of Travelers Championship

By Matt Tait     Jun 25, 2020

AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
Golfers play on the 18th green during the first round of the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, Thursday, June 25, 2020, in Cromwell, Conn.

After opening with three birdies on the front nine during the first round of the Travelers Championship on Thursday in Connecticut, former Kansas golf standout Gary Woodland struggled to get home.

Woodland shot a 3-over par 38 on the back nine, which included a double bogey on the par-5 13th hole, and wound up even for the day and in a tie for 107th place.

As he has done so often since the PGA Tour returned to a full schedule following the sport’s shutdown in the wake of the pandemic, Woodland started hot. He birdied the first hole, added another birdie at No. 4 and was 3-under by the time he stepped onto the tee box at No. 7.

Woodland, who finished 9th at the Charles Schwab Challenge, golf’s first evident since restarting, and 62nd last week in South Carolina, tried to rally to save his round with a birdie on the par-3 16th.

But he followed that up with a bogey at No. 17 and parred No. 18 to shoot 70 for the day.

The up-and-down round left Woodland 10 strokes behind the leader, Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes, who shot 60 with 10 birdies and eight pars.

Three golfers enter Friday’s second round three shots off the lead and six more sit four strokes back at 6-under.

Woodland will tee off at 7:05 a.m. on Friday, playing with Joaquin Niemann and Patton Kizzire. The threesome will start off their second rounds on the 10th hole at TPC River Highlands.

Kizzire shot 4-under on Thursday and enters Round 2 in a tie for 17th and Niemann shot 2-under and is tied for 58th.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.