PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- In a field full of superstar veterans, it was a rookie who shined (again) on Thursday in Round 1 of the Players Championship. While Rory McIlroy (73), Dustin Johnson (71), Sergio Garcia (73) and Justin Rose (74) all battled themselves over the first 18 holes, Jon Rahm played a bogey-free 68 and is one back of leaders William McGirt and Mackenzie Hughes.

On a penal course, Rahm somehow only his half the fairways but still managed to save par from every situation he got himself into. His round culminated with two birdies in the final three holes as he tied Alex Noren, Chez Reavie and J.B. Holmes for third late in the day on Thursday. 

Rahm, as expected based on how few fairways he hit, was actually not very good statistically off the tee (outside the top 80), but he made up for it with some wicked approach shots and by scrambling like crazy all day.

"Most of the courses we play throughout the year, it's more hitting drivers hard is what I like to do," Rahm explained. "Sometimes not even caring if I'm in the fairway or not because a wedge -- or 60 yards out of the rough might be just as good as being on the fairway. 

"This is a course that you can't do that on, so it really -- I just had to pick out how far I wanted to be into the green or if I wanted to make sure I was in the fairway or if I wanted to make sure I was close to the green, and that's what we did."

It was a different style of golf for the normally overpowering Rahm. He's shown the ability in his first full loop around the PGA Tour to adapt to any style and any course. He's a superstar even if nobody is fully aware of it yet.

"I don't mind hitting my driving iron off the tee," added Rahm. "I enjoy it. I didn't hit my best tee shots today on a couple of the holes today as I could have, but I had good numbers in so I was able to work around that. Obviously, today the key was that every time I missed the fairway I was able to put it on the green."

Rahm's greatest asset is his ability to conduct his business no matter the situation. No matter what kind of lie he has or how far out he sits or what number is up on the scoreboard, he can meld his mind and his swing for the occasion.

"If I missed the green I was able to scramble for par, which is key," said Rahm. "To be honest, anything around even par would have been a happy round in the course conditions that we had today. It's still surreal that I went bogey-free. I can't explain how that happened."

This consistency even when he's in trouble is why he's never missed a cut as a pro. He has six top 10s and nine (!) top 25s this season in 12 starts. Still, he's being overlooked.

It feels weird to call a man with one PGA Tour win the guy to beat after 18 holes, but Rahm has that kind of look right now. He's aggressive and young enough to think he's unassailable. Those are two great traits to have when you're rolling around the Stadium Course on Players Championship week -- especially as the grounds bake out and frustrate the players at the top of the leaderboard.

So with 54 holes left, we have a tight board with 50 golfers within four of the lead, but we also have a favorite (according to Vegas, Rahm is 6-1). It's not Rahm's tournament to lose yet. There's still a long way to go, but he has established himself as the man with the best chance to take control of the tournament heading into the weekend. And if that happens, he's going to be a hell of a frontrunner to catch.

Notes from Round 1

  • I walked with the Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas group for much of the afternoon. They could not get any electricity going, and it showed as three of the top 15 golfers in the world could only muster an aggregate score of 1 over.
  • Speaking of McIlroy, he revealed after the round that he's re-aggrevated his back. "My back has got a little bit stiff again," said McIlroy. "I guess just from obviously building it up and playing through and then not doing anything for three weeks and then coming back last weekend and hitting balls for four or five hours a day. Just aggravated that joint in my back again, the thing that sort of happened at the start of the season. I've sort of been trying to rest that and manage that, so I think that's why I'm a little bit rusty, as well."
  • We were out there for the Sergio Garcia ace on No. 17, and it was electrifying. The whole place rumbled, and everyone (including several players) stopped to see what was going on. It's apparently the Year of the Sergio so far.
  • I'm in on Mackenzie Hughes. We talked to him for a while before the tournament, and he's a self-aware guy who's very glad for where the game has taken him. A few years ago he was playing on the Mackenzie Tour (no relation). Now he's leading The Players in his first rattle out of the box. Golf, man.
  • Just like we all though, William McGirt would beat Jordan Spieth by 12 strokes combined in the first round of The Players and the Masters this year.
  • Speaking of Spieth, he was not pleased about an un-raked bunker that led to a double bogey for him. He even took a photo of the lack of tidiness and spoke about it after his round of 73. "It was just a bunker that was raked to where it just kind of looked like somebody didn't really care much to do it or were rushing off the green," said Spieth. "I had, I was, I think, in worse than a plugged lie, when it just trickled into it. And I overreacted probably a bit, but all in all, you just don't see that very often. I know my guy, Michael, rakes and makes sure that that's exactly the way that it was when he went in there so that if you hit it in the bunker, everybody gets the same kind of thing.

    "You don't see it -- guys are very good 99.9 percent of the time and that was very frustrating, because I knew where I was, from a normal lie, it wasn't too bad; and from that lie I had no chance. So it was a frustrating time in the round there where I was trying to kind of get some momentum going."
  • This is some stat.