Precision play puts Tom Kim atop the Travelers Championship leaderboard after first round, log-jam behind

CROMWELL – Most fans may not have noticed the changes to six holes on the TPC River Highlands course during the first round of the Travelers Championship on Thursday. The differences didn’t drastically affect the leaderboard, but the players noticed.

The changes were meant to prioritize precision. And Tom Kim, the leader at 8-under par 62 after 18 holes, was precise.

“I hit the ball in the fairway a lot. Obviously this course, if you start hitting the ball in the fairway you can kind of go at some pins and have some good opportunities,” Kim said, correctly.

In his second appearance at the Travelers, the 21-year-old South Korean hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation (88.9%, tied for third-best) and 11 of 14 fairways off the tee (78.6%, tied for sixth-best). He shot ten pars, eight birdies, and managed to stay clear of any small error that may have ruined a hole.

A reduced field of just 70 players, intense heat in the mid-90s, and some of the world’s finest players vying for a piece of the $20 million purse—which pays $3.6 million to the winner—were present on Thursday. 265 birdies, nine eagles, and 818 pars were recorded.

Kim’s leading score matched the 2023 mark of Keegan Bradley, who was two shots behind Denny McCarthy’s record 10-under par 60 after the first round and ended up winning with a tournament-record score of 23-under par 157.

Behind Kim there were four players (Rickie Fowler, Will Zalatoris, Kurt Kitayama and Akshay Bhatia) tied for second at 6-under par 64, and seven, including world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 3 Xander Schauffele, tied three strokes behind the lead at 5-under par 65.

“I did really like the changes, I didn’t feel like they did too much. They did what I would call just enough to kind of bring in a few more challenges and still without taking away the character of a lot of holes,” said Scheffler, who finished in a fourth-place tie last summer and hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation on Thursday.

Scheffler did have trouble on No. 6, where he got stuck in a bunker after his second shot and finished with bogey, his only of the day. He parred the next six holes before an eight-foot putt for eagle on No. 13.

“I had given myself a good amount of looks there in that little stretch,” he said. “This is a golf course you’ve got to be patient around. I hit two really great shots in there to give myself a look, and then I got a nice read off Max (Homa)’s putt and was able to knock that in.”

Wyndham Clark, tied for 13th at 4-under par 66, noticed more of a challenge.

“The course is definitely harder,” he said. “I think the shrinking of the green on 9 and 11 were really good changes. Then, guys not hitting driver on 12, it’s definitely more of you’ve got to hit two really good shots to try to make birdie. Then (the narrowed fairway and deep fescue to the right of the green on) 6, it’s not my favorite change, but it definitely makes it tougher tee shot so it’s not just a wide fairway and if you miss it you just chip out. Now it’s really penal.”

Still, only 140 bogeys and 21 double-bogeys were hit on Thursday. The last-place score was just 5-over par 75.

Kim jumped the log-jam at 6-under par with five birdies on the back nine. His favorite birdie, however, came on No. 8, when everything went according to plan despite some wind. He landed his first shot 10 feet, nine inches from the hole in the middle of the green and sunk the putt.

“I picked a really good target and I executed it perfectly to leave myself a perfect 11-footer uphill,” he said.

Zalatoris, struggling in the months before his Travelers debut, also jumped the cluster and led at 7-under through 15 holes. But, after surging with five birdies in the first six holes on the back nine, he narrowly missed a putt from almost 17 feet and had to settle for bogey. He made par on the last two holes to stay with the cluster.

“I got out here Saturday night and then Sunday I had a basically all-day grind session just to try to figure out what was going on,” Zalatoris said. “I got into some bad habits, figured out kind of what I needed to fix, and just Sort of excavated it from the earth. That’s a kind of lovely ability to have. It was like old times again, needing to hit six irons to a green that was 195 yards away and attempt to make five consecutive putts within a 13-yard range. Having everyone here this weekend and working so hard was enjoyable, and it’s good to see the results in the first round back.

In the second round on Friday, Zalatoris will start the first twosome at 7:05 a.m., followed by Kim at 8:15 a.m. Among the later groups, Scheffler and Clark will tee off at 12:40 and 12:50 p.m., respectively.