Matti Schmid had a strong start at The American Express PGA Tour event but a late setback dropped him down the leaderboard.
Matti Schmid began the tournament on the Nicklaus Tournament Course with excellent conditions and played a solid round of 67, finishing 5 under par. He missed an even better score due to a double bogey on the 18th hole. After the first day, he stands at T51, just two strokes behind the top 20. Stephan Jäger shot a 71, 1 under par, to lie at T118, while Sepp Straka carded a 72, sitting at T131. Both will need significant improvements on Friday to make the cut. Leading the tournament are Min Woo Lee and Pierceson Coody at 10 under par, followed closely by a chasing group including Scottie Scheffler and Robert MacIntyre at 9 under par.
PGA Tour: Matti Schmid’s strong round until the final hole
Starting with a birdie on the first hole after a well-placed drive, Schmid continued with two more birdies on the front nine at the par 5 holes 4 and 7, reaching 3 under par. His back nine began even better with two consecutive birdies on holes 10 and 11, and after a par on hole 12, he added two more birdies to reach 7 under par. However, on hole 15, a mishit second shot forced him to take a drop and resulted in his first bogey. He rebounded quickly with his eighth birdie on 16, seemingly on track to finish in the top 20, but a costly double bogey on the last hole dropped him back to T51 with a final score of 67.
Stephan Jäger and Sepp Straka fall behind
Stephan Jäger had a tough start on the back nine, going 3 over par after four holes due to a bogey and double bogey. He improved with birdies on 16 and 18 to get to 1 over par. Although a birdie on hole 3 set him back briefly, he rallied with birdies on holes 5, 8, and the closing 9th to finish at 1 under par, placing him at T118. Last year’s winner Sepp Straka had a quiet front nine with no mistakes but also no birdies, playing an even-par 36. He found some rhythm with birdies on holes 10 and 13 but bogeys on 15 and a double bogey on 16 hurt his score. He saved an even-par round with a birdie at 18 but sits at T131, facing a challenging path to make the weekend cut.