Fort Worth, Texas: Jazz Janewattananond displayed little nerves upstaging some of the PGA Tour’s more-seasoned campaigners with a level par 70 of his Tour debut at the Dean & Deluca Invitational at Fort Worth, Texas.
The effort left the 21-year-old Thai sensation, who won the Mena Tour’s MahaSamutr Masters at Banyan Golf Club earlier this month, well inside the Top-40 trailing just five shots behind the clubhouse leading American-born trio of Derek Fathauer, J T Poston and Kelly Kraft with rounds of five under par 65s. Jazz began his round from the 10th tee on the famed Colonial club course, and where legendary Lone Star State golfer Ben Hogan won the Invitational five times.
There was clearly no sign of nerves when Jazz was introduced on the tee ahead of this year’s Asian Tour and Mena Tour-winner brilliantly splitting the fairway and then finding the green in regulation with a 168-yard second shot to some 30-feet from where he two-putted for par. He dropped a shot at the par four, 12th hole in missing the green right while at the 14th Jazz was left of the green and the chipping to 13-feet but three-putting.
But then Jazz really displayed his enormous talent when, after missing the fairway right at 17, he drilled a 179-yard second shot to some 20-feet and just off the green from where he holed out for birdie. “I managed to have a good night sleeping and the weird thing is that I was not nervous on the first tee because I thought I would be nervous,” he said.
Those who Jazz also finished in front also included former Asian Tour No. 1 Anirban Lahiri, who signed for a 76 along with PGA Tour winners Martin Laird (73), Steve Stricker (72), Emiliano Grillo (72), recent Players Championship winner Si Woo Kim (72) and former US Open champion, Geoff Ogilvy (71).
