Steele eager to get started, and it showed at Silverado

Harold Varner III, who joins Tiger Woods as the only players of black heritage on the PGA Tour this year, made a strong rookie debut with a 65. Varner follows tied in third with Laird. The action continues today from Silverado Country Club in Napa.

Steele started his round on the back nine and was feeling himself. Steele said. “Well, I think I only missed one green”.

“I thought it was not an easy course, but my tee shots, my iron shots, my putting, everything just went really well”, Park said through a translator. “Basically, everybody is thousands of hours of practice behind with the short putter”.

“The last couple of years…”

Playing the back nine low was key for almost every player on the leaderboard. The following week is the second event of the European Tour’s Final Series on the Race to Dubai, the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.

“Last year was the first year I’ve been inside the top 20 in driving”, Rose said, per Lavner. “I feel like I have five great years ahead of me”.

Rose (67) and McIlroy (68), were among 28 players who shot 68 or better, and one-third of the field was in the 60s. McIlroy got his round off to a slow start after starting 1-over through five holes, but he finally starting finding his rhythm and grabbed five birdies in his next 13 holes.

Bryce Molder (Conway) opened with a 2-over 74 which included 3 bogeys, 2 birdies and an eagle at the par-5 fifth. Getting on the green in regulation on all but one hole, McIlroy had several opportunities to knock down reasonable putts but failed.

“That’s the sort of travel that you have to do to be a worldwide player”, McIlroy said Wednesday. “I converted a few, but I’ll need to hole a few more”.

But after taking a somewhat deflating 31 strokes on the greens he signed for a 4-under 68 in the first round that left him five strokes off the lead (Brendan Steele) at the Frys.com Open at Silverado North on Thursday.

As part of an endorsement deal he has with Santander, the company tracked various aspects of McIlroy’s life and informed him that in the past 12 months he had spent “a fortnight” of time on an airplane, having visited 118 different airports, with 287 hotel nights.