PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Dustin Johnson, the world No. 1, hopes that a new putter and a new putting method will help turn around his fortunes at a premier golf championship that has mystified him for years.
Johnson got off to the right start Thursday at the Players Championship, taming the sometimes diabolical TPC Sawgrass to shoot a relatively breezy 6-under 66 and join five others with the Day 1 lead.
Johnson, 33, is in his 10th Players, where he has finished better than a tie for 28th only once, that being a tie for 12th last year. TPC Sawgrass and its greens have always had the upper hand on him, so this time around, he switched things up. He used the AimPoint method of reading greens for the first time in competition, and used a smaller version of the mallet putter that pushed him to the No. 1 ranking.
“I don’t think I putted very well around here as a whole,” Johnson said, adding, “That’s the one thing I’ve struggled with around here, and obviously today I rolled it nicely.”
On a day when the winds stayed down and there was little defense for the golf course, 38 players shot in the 60s. Johnson was joined at 66 by four other Americans — Webb Simpson, Matt Kuchar, Chesson Hadley and Patrick Cantlay — as well as Alex Noren of Sweden. Si Woo Kim, who a year ago at 21 became the youngest winner in the championship’s 44-year history, was a shot off the lead.
There was another logjam of six players at 67, including rookie Keith Mitchell and 51-year-old Steve Stricker.
Johnson started his round on the back nine and ran off six birdies in an eight-hole stretch beginning at the par-5 11th. Johnson’s latest challenger for No. 1 spot, Justin Thomas, shot a 73. This is a big week, and if Johnson keeps winning, he won’t be caught atop the rankings soon. But he could lose the No. 1 spot if he finishes 12th or worse.
“It was definitely a big deal to get there, and it’s a big deal to stay there, I think,” Johnson said.
The day’s premier grouping included another player well-versed in being No. 1, Tiger Woods, who played with Phil Mickelson at TPC Sawgrass for the first time since 2001 and for the first time overall since the 2014 PGA Championship.
There weren’t many fireworks in their group, which was filled out by Rickie Fowler.
Woods made an 18-footer for eagle at the par-5 ninth hole, but needed to salvage bogey at his final hole to shoot a 72. Mickelson, who said he lacked energy and focus, carded a 79, his highest opening round at the Players since 2000. Fowler shot a 74.
“I said it Sunday at Wells Fargo, I was worried about energy this week,” said Mickelson, who won the Players in 2007. “And I just kind of ran out at the end.”
He shot a 41 on his closing nine.
Woods was making his eighth start of the season just weeks after the anniversary of his spinal fusion, which was his fourth back surgery. The Players shows no favoritism to long hitters such as Woods and Mickelson, but Woods is a two-time winner of the event (2001 and 2013).
Woods hit only five of 14 fairways, twice having to chip out of the woods on par-5 holes, and never did get much going. He ended up with a bogey-5 at No. 18 after pulling a tee shot struck with a 3-iron into water left of the fairway. He sank an 11-foot putt to finish the round.
“I knew I was going to drop a shot, but didn’t want to shoot over par for the round,” Woods said. “I was playing better than that. So it was nice to make that putt.”
