Wellesley’s Michael Thorbjornsen fails at the Sanderson Farms Championship

“How many 9-footers are you going to get to shoot 59?” Skinns said. “I’m sure I won’t get many. It’s hard not to be a little disappointed, but I really want to look back at how I felt mentally in control and how I kept attacking. I didn’t really think about the future at all, what I would take away from today.”

The future is a big part of the Sanderson Farms Championship, one of eight PGA Tour events in the “FedEx Cup Fall” that will determine the 125 players who will keep a full card next year.

Skinns was ranked 108th and his 60 gives him a big step in the right direction.

Thorbjornsen, a 2020 Wellesley High graduate, landed at No. 1 in the PGA Tour University Rankings, meaning the former Stanford star already has a full card for next year. Finishing the year in the top 125 would increase his priority when entering tournaments. He made his professional tour debut at the Travelers Championship in June, then finished tied for second at the John Deere Classic in July.

Reed Hughes opened with a 76, notable because at 71 he is the oldest man in the field. Hughes qualified for the Sanderson Farms Championship by winning the PGA Gulf States Section Championship.

Former US Open champion Gary Woodland, making steady progress after brain surgery a year ago, played bogey-free for a 64 to tie with Ben Griffin.

Rickie Fowler, playing for the first time since the British Open because he missed the FedEx Cup playoffs and his wife gave birth to their second daughter, hit two shots in the water and shot a 69. Fowler is tied for 110th but has another year of complete exemption from winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic last year.

Skinns hit just five fairways but was rarely out of position. The two times he wasn’t on the green in regulation time, he made birdie. During the round, he also made birdie putts over 55 feet and 25 feet, as well as five more birdies outside 10 feet.

“It’s great to see a couple come in that might not be the case some days,” Skinns said. “Just catapulted and I was able to maintain the momentum, which is what I was most happy about. I never really thought much about the score, just where I was going to hit the next shot.”

Matt McCarty opened with a 66 in his first start as a PGA Tour member. He won the Korn Ferry Tour three times this year, earning himself a promotion.

Mackenzie Hughes, Lucas Glover and Patton Kizzire, who won the inaugural FedEx Cup fall event at the Procore Championship, were in the big group with 67. Hughes won the Sanderson Farms Championship two years ago when he was left off the Presidents Cup team. He’s playing a week after his Presidents Cup debut this year.

He is ranked No. 51 in the FedEx Cup and will compete in the first two $20 million signature events if he stays in the top 60. The Canadian doesn’t plan on playing for a month, so not even a Presidents Cup exit was possible to stop him.

“Monday was basically sober; Tuesday rest and rest, travel here; Wednesday was just an easy day with the Pro-Am and a little bit of practice,” Hughes said. “It felt like I caught my breath on Wednesday night and was ready to come here today. Of course it’s a big achievement to put last week behind me, but my job is still there and I was ready to go.”

As for Skinns, he left the Country Club of Jackson thinking about a putt that missed and decided to remember the twelve putts that went home.

“I probably had a ball outside the cup. If I could do it all over again, I’d have a cup outside. It just broke a lot more than I thought it would,” Skinns said. “It just so happens that that was for a 59. But there were a lot out there that I did right, so I’m going to focus on the ones I did right.”