You wanted volatility at the finish of the Tour Championship?
OK, you got it.
“This year you’re going to have volatility. There’s just no way not to,” Brandt Snedeker said.
See, told you.
If Thursday’s first round is any indication, flipping the nines this year in order to finish on a par 5 hole that can be taken advantage of rather than a be-happy-with-a-par, tough, long par 3 hole is going to work out just as designed.
The 30-player field amassed one eagle and 12 birdies on the new No. 18 Thursday. And zero bogeys. That’s more birdies than the Tour Championship field managed in four rounds last year on the final hole.
By contrast, there were two birdies and five bogeys on the old No. 18, new No. 9 Thursday.
“Finishing on a par 5, I’m hoping what will happen to give us a little bit more fireworks at the end,” Jason Day (who birdied 18 Thursday) said.
“Hopefully it will yield a lot of birdies and eagles, and it makes it a lot more exciting.”
That wish is one-fourth fulfilled.
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