Russell Knox set about ending a miserable run of outs in his PGA Tour career with a gutsy two-under par 70 on the opening day of the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
Knox must have felt he was headed for an eighth missed cut in succession this season when he doubled the second hole three-putting the second hole for a ‘6’ on the host Detroit GC course.
However, the proud Scot dug deep and immediately regained the dropped shots with birdies at the third and fourth holes, and none better than landing a 166-yard third shot to five-feet at the par-5 fourth hole.
Knox bogeyed the ninth hole but then muscled his way inside the top-50 with three birdies from his 11th to 17th holes and with the longest of his birdie putts being an 11-footer at the par-4 13th.
Russell Knox rebounds from shock second hole double to post gutsy first round 70 at Rocket Mortgage Classic
It left Knox trailing five shots behind the leading American duo of Scott Stallings and Doc Redman.
Redman, 22 is no stranger to going low in ‘Motor City’ having shot a 62 a year ago in Monday qualifying for the $7.5m event. The North Carolina native then finished second on his own to not only pocket a whopping $722,000 but also secure his Tour card for the 2019/20 season along with a place in last year’s 148th Open Championship.
He said: “It’s a lot different this year compared to last year.
“I was talking to some of my friends about it, I’ve come off two good finishes and a really good finish last year at this event, which has never really happened to me.
“So, I’ve never had this kind of expectation externally or even internally if I let it, so just trying to make it the same as every other week.
“I feel very comfortable because I’ve played well here and been here, so it just comes down to playing golf and doing the best I can.”
Knox arrived in Detroit for a first time in his career having added the 720-mile drive west in his motorhome from last week’s event in Connecticut.
But since leaving his Florida home on June 5th ahead of the June 11th restart to the Tour in Fort Worth it’s been a dry run for the current World No. 141.
The Scot has missed the cut in all three post ‘lockdown’ events and in the bigger COVID-19 interrupted season, Knox has not made a halfway cut since a T16th finish on 2nd February at the Phoenix Open.
Knox then sat out the weekend rounds in the four events ahead of the cancellation of the Players Championship and also did not play all four days over the past three weeks.
A check on his stats shows Knox hit just two of seven outward nine Detroit fairways but turned that around finding all seven fairways over his homeward nine.
And it was the same story with the Knox putter taking 16 putts over his front nine but just 13 over the inward half, and four of those single putts.
