Jordan Spieth Struggles on Day 1 at The Barclays, FedEx Cup No. 1 Fires a 74, Watson goes 5 under,

from NYPOST
Spieth opened the FedEx Cup race with a 74

FedEx Cup points leader and playoff favorite Jordan Spieth did not open the 2015 race for the FedEx Cup as expected.

The world number 1, playing with a head start on world number 2 Rory McIlroy who opted to skip The Barclays to rest his ankle, fired an opening round 4 over par 74.

Spieth termed it his, “[W]orst round in years”.

Spieth started in fine fashion, firing a 2 under on his first 9 holes starting from the back-9 on hole number 10.

However, it was the back 9 that did him in – he shot an amateurish 6 over 40 on the front 9 to get to card a 74.

He seemed to blame the course for his struggles saying after his round, “I’m not a big fan of poa annua greens in general. I don’t seem to putt as well on them. Doesn’t mean you can’t. And then for me, personally, I struggle with wedges when you have to fly it at least to the hole – I like harder, firmer golf courses”.

To his credit, he did seem to believe he could turn it around and the numbers say he can as he ranked 5th in driving accuracy on the day at 79%.

Bubba Watson, looking to take advantage of this opportunity, fired an impressive 5 under 65, good enough to tie for the early lead with Spencer Levin and Camillo Villegas.

His round was almost incredible as he sat at 7 under with 4 holes to play, but he bogeyed two of his last four holes to end with a 65.