On a day when weather dominated the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, one of the better ball-strikers in the field is tied at the top Thursday of a suspended Round 1 with a handful of golfers still out on the course. Brandon Hagy shot a 6-under 65 that included nine (!) birdies, and he shares the lead with Chad Ramey by one over Vincent Whaley and by two over a host of others.
Before the round was suspended due to darkness, violent winds that Matt Fitzpatrick later called "the hardest wind I've ever played in" affected play all day, so it makes sense that a compressor of the golf ball like Hagy would thrive. Though he only averaged 287 yards off the tee, that led the field on a wild day of play in Bermuda.
Let's take a closer look at his round as well as the rest of an interesting leaderboard at this event.
T1. Brandon Hagy, Chad Ramey (-6): Hagy obviously pummels the ball, but Thursday he controlled it pretty well also. Though he hit just six of 14 fairways, he hit 14 greens in regulation and gave himself a lot of looks. A double on the 15th was his big mistake, and that came early in his round after he started by making birdie at four of the first five holes.
"My mindset was just trying to hit solid balls and stay down and try and stay composed on the greens and just got to keep my head down, try to keep a solid strike on it," Hagy said after an exhausting day. "You know you're going to get some gusts, some situations where you're going to miss it. Like on my seventh hole there I had like a two-and-a-half footer and got gusted as I'm putting it. That stuff's going to happen. You're just going to have to decide before the round that everyone's dealing with it and try the best you can."
Hagy's best-ever finish at a PGA Tour event actually came earlier this year when he started strong at the Honda Classic and went on to finish second. If he betters that this time around then he'll play in his first Masters next April.
Ramey, by the way, is the new favorite to win this tournament at 5-1. He's also a good striker and had two made cuts in a row coming into this week.
3. Vincent Whaley (-5): Whaley closed in a flurry, playing the last three holes in 4 under and getting in the house with a 66. He is not traditionally a great hitter of the ball, and like Hagy and Ramey he's looking for his first win on the PGA Tour.
T4. Danny Lee, Garrick Higgo, Seamus Power, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, David Skinns, Justin Lower (-4): This is a pretty incredible crew. According to Caesars Sportsbook, Power is actually the most likely of this group to win. This makes sense. He's hit the ball really well of late, won back in July at an opposite field event the week of the Open Championship and only made one bogey after, like Hagy, hitting 14 greens in regulation. He played in the easier afternoon wave and, like everyone else who played on Thursday, alluded to just how difficult the wind was in Round 1 (and specifically how growing up playing in Ireland helped him).
"You know, you just get used to playing in the wind, I think," Power said. "Like you just kind of learn that the wind will move it back and little things like that where you're not always trying to fight it. You see guys who don't play in a lot of wind, you try to overdo in my opinion. Obviously everyone's got their own way of doing it. But it's definitely an advantage, you just kind of learn tricks and kind of what not to do here and there. I was trying to do that as best I could today."
T10. Patrick Reed, Austin Eckroat, Patrick Rodgers, Greyson Sigg, Dylan Frittelli (-3): This is the most interesting group on the board. Eckroat is coming off a really strong career at Oklahoma State. Rodgers is coming off the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. And Reed is coming off one of his wilder seasons (which is saying something). He's probably the one to watch here, even though he hasn't been hitting the ball great for a while. If this turns into a battle of the wills — and given how things went, it might — he's tough to bet against. Like Hagy, he thrived despite mistakes in Round 1. He made six birdies and an eagle en route to the 68 and is among the new favorites to win the event.
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October 29, 2021 at 06:26AM
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2021 Bermuda Championship leaderboard: Brandon Hagy, Chad Ramey share lead in windy Round 1 - CBS Sports
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