Chad Ramey and Collin Morikawa set early pace at The Players with eight-under and seven-under rounds respectively; both players delighted with their swing Hayden Buckley hits "dream" hole-in-one on iconic 17th - watch The Players live through Sunday on Sky Sports
Thursday 9 March 2023 19:15, UK
Collin Morikawa put his excellent start at The Players down to swinging the club as well as he has done in four years.
The two-time major champion carded a seven-under, blemish-free 65 during round one at Ponte Vedra Beach, picking up five shots across the first six holes of his back nine including an eagle at the par-five second hole.
Morikawa, the 2020 PGA champion and 2021 Open champion, is one shot in arrears of early leader Chad Ramey.
Morikawa, 26, missed the cut in two of his previous three PGA Tour events, failing to make the weekend at the WM Phoenix Management Open and then last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational.
He said: "I would say for the most part, all 2023, I'm back to playing how I used to. I'm trying to enjoy it. I would say this week, [after] what I found earlier this week, my swing hasn't looked this good probably since 2019.
"I've played very well in 2020, 2021, but position-wise I just love where I'm at right now and just freeing everything up, just allowing me to look up at my target and hit the ball, and hopefully it goes where I want it."
Ramey, who also carded a bogey-free round, said: "My game has felt close for a long time. I have made a little tweak with my swing, which is top secret and appears to be paying off. Everything came together."
The moment of the day came on the iconic 17th hole with Hayden Buckley carding a hole-in-one.
The American's eagle helped him into a share of the lead at one point but he then endured a horror end to his round, bagging two double bogeys and two further dropped shots across his final seven holes to finish one over.
On his ace at the island green, Buckley said: "It's something you dream about. I will definitely remember it for a while.
"I had a little feeling something like that might happen this week. I've been hitting it well, but it's always nice to see it happen on that hole.
"I remember Shane Lowry making a hole-in-one last year and it looked like this. I was waiting for it to drop the whole time, it was perfect. The conditions were perfect, there wasn't much wind. It took off exactly where I was looking.
"I think the hardest shot I hit all day was the 18th tee, right after the hole-in-one. I feel like I handled the hole-in-one really well. After that, I just simply didn't play well."
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