Matt Fitzpatrick's mishap lands him in trouble on day 1 at Valspar Championship
Matt Fitzpatrick had a forgettable outing on Thursday at the Valspar Championship when most of the players had low scores. A penalty and a quintuple bogey, followed by two straight bogeys, made sure Fitzpatrick would struggle to make the cut yet again.
Fitzpatrick began well at Palm Harbor with a birdie on the first hole. However, it all went down when his tee shot went left and into the trees. Fitzpatrick returned for a tee shot and hit well on his second turn. The twist came when a fan located the first ball that went into the trees. Fitzpatrick wasn't in the mood to check it out, but referees said he had to. Unfortunately, it turned out to be out of bounds, forcing a penalty on him.
The nightmare didn't end just yet. His next shot went into the water. He missed the green on the fifth shot. Eventually, he needed four more shots to putt the ball into the hole. As a result, he had to settle for a quintuple bogey.
The defending US Open Champion's next two holes went on to bogey. He eventually ended up at 3-over 71 in a T-96 position. The World No. 13 missed the cut at last week's Players Championship and Valspar could potentially be his third missed cut in the last four starts.
The 2023 Valspar Championship leaderboard
On the first day of the 2023 Valspar Championship, Ryan Brehm, Stephan Jaeger, and Adam Schenk had strong performances and are tied at the top of the leaderboard by posting an impressive 5-under 66.
Jordan Spieth, who made a return to Innisbrook after five years, posted a bogey-free round of 4-under 67. Lucas Glover and Maverick McNealy are also tied alongside Spieth at T-4.
Here's the leaderboard after the first round of the 2023 Valspar Championship
Position Name Score
T1 Adam Schenk 66
T1 Ryan Brehm 66
T1 Stephan Jaeger 66
T4 Jordan Spieth 67
T4 Lucas Glover 67
T4 Maverick McNealy 67
T7 Byeong Hun An 68
T7 Kramer Hickok 68
T7 Tommy Fleetwood 68
T7 Alex Smalley 68
T7 Patton Kizzire 68
T12 Stewart Cink 69
T12 Ben Martin 69
T12 Doug Ghim 69
T12 Adam Hadwin 69
T12 Sam Burns 69
T12 Justin Thomas 69
T12 Davis Riley 69
T12 Ben Griffin 69
T12 MJ Daffue 69
T21 Chad Ramey 70
T21 Brian Harman 70
T21 Mark Hubbard 70
T21 Danny Guise 70
T21 Harry Higgs 70
T21 Patrick Rodgers 70
T21 J.T. Poston 70
T21 Erik van Rooyen 70
T21 Will Gordon 70
T21 Victor Perez 70
T21 Akshay Bhatia 70
T32 Seonghyeon Kim 71
T32 Adam Long 71
T32 Joseph Bramlett 71
T32 Greyson Sigg 71
T32 Zac Blair 71
T32 Justin Rose 71
T32 Andrew Landry 71
T32 Cameron Champ 71
T32 Robert Streb 71
T32 Sean O'Hair 71
T32 Ryan Armour 71
T32 Matt Wallace 71
T32 Zecheng Dou 71
T32 Tano Goya 71
T32 Dylan Wu 71
T32 Taylor Moore 71
T32 Kelly Kraft 71
T32 Jason Dufner 71
T32 Richy Werenski 71
T32 Gary Woodland 71
T32 Garrick Higgo 71
T32 Webb Simpson 71
T32 Hank Lebioda 71
T32 John VanDerLaan 71
T32 Vincent Norrman 71
T32 Trevor Werbylo 71