Texas Open: First-round recap, day two tips & betting news

Sky Sports Golf, 1.30pm Friday

Si-Woo Kim leads after the opening round of the Texas Open but his 66 was overshadowed by Jordan Spieth who, following months of indifferent form, has sparked into life on the eve of the Masters.

Spieth carded a four-under 68 despite struggling for accuracy off the tee and bookmakers were quick to cut the price of the 25-year-old winning his second Green Jacket as he climbed the leaderboard at TPC San Antonio.

The Texan boasts awesome Augusta form figures of 2-1-2-11-3 but is winless since the 2017 Open. He was available at 25-1 before teeing off in his home state but is now no bigger than 20-1 to win the first Major of the year.

Kim sits atop the leaderboard with his six-under-par effort but JT Poston, Abraham Ancer, Brian Stuard and Jhonattan Vegas are all close behind, while tournament ante-post favourite Rickie Fowler is tied sixth alongside his close friend Spieth.

The Californian, already a winner at the Phoenix Open this year, is now no bigger than 8-1 to win in Texas this week. Spieth is a 10-1 shot from 25-1 while 2017 Players champion Kim is 14-1 having been available at 66-1 before the players teed off on Thursday.

Jim Furyk opened up with a 70 at a venue where he finished in the top six in both 2013 and 2014 and the in-form veteran could charge up the leaderboard on day two.

Furyk has been in excellent form this season, finishing sixth at Mayakoba, ninth at the Honda , second at the Players and 18th at the Valspar on his most recent strokeplay start. He played well in the WGC Match Play last week, too, seeing off Jason Day and Phil Mickelson before being outdone by Henrik Stenson.

That loss against Stenson cost Furyk a spot in the Masters and the 48-year-old knows that only a victory this week will see him tee it up at Augusta. That is not the case for his playing partners Matt Kuchar and Tony Finau, who will be in the field next week no matter what happens in Texas.

Furyk will be motivated to climb a congested leaderboard and does not deserve to be the outsider of three in the 6.50pm match.

Kuchar shot a fine 69 yesterday but the American, who has been the subject of some negative press in recent months, carded bogeys at the seventh (his 16th) and ninth (18th), and failed to birdie the par-five eighth.

Finau, meanwhile, began with a scratchy 72 punctuated by poor driving, and his eyes could quickly turn towards Augusta if he fails to get off to a decent start to round two.

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