Sanderson Farms Championship: Rookie Davis Riley and Will Gordon lead after first round
Riley and Gordon one shot clear of seven-strong group on five under at the Country Club of Jackson; Live coverage of the Sanderson Farms Championship continues on Friday from 1.30pm via the red button, with coverage from 8.30pm on Sky Sports Golf.
By Amar Mehta
Last Updated: 30/09/22 10:07am
Davis Riley and Will Gordon fired first-round 66s to sit one shot clear of the field at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi.
Riley, who grew up close to the Country Club of Jackson host course, is coming off a strong rookie season after just missing out on the Tour Championship.
He got off to a good start on Thursday, keeping bogeys off his card to end the day in joint first with a six-under round.
The 25-year-old saved par with an eight-footer on the first hole and added a pair of 12-foot birdie putts on the front nine.
Riley is joined at the top of the leaderboard by Gordon, who made up for a mixed front nine with four birdies coming home, including a 20-foot put on the par-five 14th.
Behind them seven players, including Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa and Thomas Detry of Belgium, carded five-under 67s.
Big-hitting Brandon Matthews, who got married Saturday, and two other rookies in Trevor Cone and Kevin Yu were among that group.
Defending champion Sam Burns opened with a 70 one week after he was part of the US team that won the President's Cup.
The Sanderson Farms was a good start to his season a year ago. He went on to win twice more, in play-offs at the Valspar Championship and at Colonial.
Gordon said: "I drove it nice. You have to do that out here. There's no secret about that. I drove it well from the start.
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"Gave myself a good look on the first hole and missed it. Kind of made a sloppy bogey on the fourth and was kind of even-par just hanging in there. I felt like my game was really good. I kept putting myself in the fairway and gave myself some good birdie opportunities."
Riley admitted that he didn't "have the best day with my driver".
"When I did hit the fairway, I felt like I gave myself a really good opportunity to hit some nice approaches in there. Hit a couple of really nice ones on the par threes," he said.
"Snagged a birdie or two on the par threes, which is always nice. Pretty stress-free. When I was out of position, I either left myself a pretty simple two-putt from 40 feet or a pretty simple leave to get up and in. Pretty stress-free day, and hopefully I can continue more of that."
Leading the British contingent is Russell Knox, who sits 10th after a four-under 68, one shot ahead of Martin Laird.
Watch the Sanderson Farms Championship throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Live coverage continues Friday from 1.30pm via the red button, ahead of full coverage from 8.30pm on Sky Sports Golf.
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