Toms shot his best score in more than five years

Toms shot his best score in more than five years

The 62s by Toms and Reavie matched the lowest 18-hole scores on the PGA Tour this season, and were the best for an opening round. Reavie bettered his career-best round by two strokes.Rickie Fowler shot a 63, missing a chance to tie the tournament record after his approach on his final hole, the 407-yard No. 9, hit the green and spun back into the water. He closed with a double-bogey 6 in a round that included an eagle, eight birdies and a three-putt bogey from 6 1/2 feet at the par-3 16th.Fowler made a 20-foot eagle putt on the par-5 first hole and was 8 under over an eight-hole stretch before hitting his tee shot at his final hole left of a bunker into the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 irons Can Creat A Special Swing rough before his penalized approach. And he still had a 29 on the front side.“It’s a sorry way to finish the round, but I hit it really well, putted well,” Fowler said. “A 29 with a double is not too bad. … I’m excited to be playing well this week and kind of draw off the good out there today. A 63 to start off with is pretty awesome.”Brendon de Jonge, Stewart Cink, Brian Gay, Nathan Green and Charlie Wi each shot 64s, a stroke better than Rod Pampling, Mark Wilson and John Senden. Wi was the only of the top 11 scorers who played in the afternoon, when more wind made conditions tougher.Toms shot 31s on both nines at Colonial, starting on the back and wrapping up both sides with long birdie putts. His 27-foot putt at No. 18 started a stretch of three consecutive birdies, and he punctuated his round with a 29-foot birdie putt on the ninth hole.Though he hit only six of 14 fairways, Toms needed just 24 putts.“It was one of those days where I saw the lines. I had a lot of putts that barely broke right, barely broke left,” he said. “I had a lot of uphill-type putts where you could be aggressive. It’s just one of those days where everything seemed to go right.”Reavie is making a comeback from reconstructive surgery on his right knee last year, when he matched his career-best round of 64 at the Byron Nelson Championship in May before being diagnosed with a second meniscus tear in his knee.“It’s just great to be out there,” Reavie said. “It feels great. It swells up some, but it’s not from the golf. It’s from the walking. I wake up the next day and feel great. It’s much better than it was.”Toms wants to win again to prove to himself that he still can, so it will take more than an impressive rebound round to fully satisfy himself.“I still need to put all those four rounds together. I was able to do that somewhat last week,” Toms said. “I had times back in the early 2000s where I won by a bunch. You know, played with the lead a lot of times and was able to maintain it and increase that. Until I’m able to do that again, I’ll still have that doubt.