The green staff at Colonial Country Club found a new use for squeegees, as the PGA Tour rebooted in eerie silence with the first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge. As players chipped and pitched onto the practice putting green, where social distancing wasn't obligatory for those golf balls which formed into clusters, it got to the point where a member of the maintenance team utilised the tool normally used to clear waterlogged greens to sweep the balls away.
On the driving range, the usual madness was absent too, as players and caddies sought, but mainly failed, to stay apart. Old habits proved hard to break.
And if such altered pre-round routines provided an indicator for the players of the new normal, there were physical attributes among the players themselves that showed how three months in shutdown can affect the body: Bryson DeChambeau had bulked into something akin to the Hulk; Graeme McDowell had lost his belly, while Rickie Fowler and Brooks Koepka had acquired fashionable moustaches.
But it was the silence that shouted the loudest. No applause, no roars. “It’s certainly awkward not having everybody out here, but I’m certainly proud of the steps the PGA Tour has taken to have everybody safe, [to] feel safe in this environment. . . it was fun to be back,” said Phil Mickelson, who’d worn large sunglasses throughout his round.
Of that lack of atmosphere, Jhonattan Vegas said: “It felt strange to be honest, just kind of getting on the first tee and having your name called and not having anyone around to say anything, it felt like, ‘hey, what’s going on here?’”
And when all was said and done, even in the strange spectator-free environment, it was golf which created its own white noise: Justin Rose, who'd started the lockdown in a multi-million, multi-year club deal with Honma, only to come back with that deal struck out and a collection of clubs that featured TaylorMade, Cobra and Titleist, shot a bogey-free round of seven-under-par 63 to claim the clubhouse lead, a shot clear of Venezuela's Vegas and Mexico's Abraham Ancer.
“[It] felt quite subdued out there for sure,” admitted Rose of the quietness which followed them throughout all 18 holes. “Sometimes you get up really early and some morning rounds on tour can kind feel a little subdued and quiet, but it never really picked up. Obviously it’s a bit of a strange situation for sure. It kind of feels like a competitive practice round. But obviously I think we all know what’s on the line, we all know what we’re playing for.”
Except, on their first hole, the 10th, Rose’s birdie – an unlikely one, having found trees off the tee and then rolling in a putt from off the green – was met by applause from Dustin Johnson’s brother, his caddie Austin.
That birdie, when it seemed as if he was struggling to save par, provided an unlikely platform for Rose’s great round on his return to competition.
Of the new demands of social distancing, Rose said: “It’s amazing how routine and what you’ve done for 20 years kicks in, and you’ve got to keep reminding yourself; I’m sure we all made a couple of mistakes out there, but we’re definitely very conscious of what we touch personally and therefore who touches that next and how that’s dealt with. I think obviously all the caddies are trying to do a good job with the flagstick because obviously that impacts the whole field, raking the bunkers and what have you.
“Obviously I’m staying with my caddie, we’ve been in close proximity and kind of living in a little bubble together, so whether that be touching the golf clubs with a towel, I’m kind of relatively comfortable with that, but we’ve got to be cognisant of other people. Every surface you look at now, you’ve just got to kind of treat it as an unknown. It’s interesting. But we’re definitely doing our best to play by the guidelines for sure.”
And of the moment's silence which came at 8.46am local time in Texas in memory of George Floyd who was killed in Minneapolis almost a fortnight ago, Rose remarked: "It was very quiet out on the golf course anyway. Sometimes when you have thousands of people and there's that momentary pause, I think you feel the energy and the gravity of the situation more, but I think obviously it's a very personal moment right now to reflect on your life, how you go about your life, how you live your life and how inclusive you are in your own life with everybody you come across."
A slimmed-down McDowell started with eight straight pars and, having slipped to one over on his card through 14 holes of his opening round, finished strongly with birdies on the sixth and eighth holes to sign for a one-under-par 69, while British Open champion Shane Lowry opened with a one-over-par 71 in a round in which he managed only one birdie.
World number one Rory McIlroy opened with a birdie on the first and responded with a bogey on the sixth to claim back-to-back birdies on the eighth and ninth holes to turn in two-under-par 33.
Playing the famous course for the first time in competition, he then went on to par every hole on the back nine as his putter failed to heat up, later describing his day as “uneventful”.
Harold Varner III joined Rose on top of the leaderboard after his bogey-free 63.
