Today's the first day of the tournament where I really missed having patrons in attendance. There lacked an energy on the course that would normally be present, helping the challengers get some momentum. To his credit, DJ pretty much sucked all the energy out of the room with his blistering start and then put it in cruise control on the back to maintain a four stroke lead. No one seemingly wanted to grab the baton and make a run at him. Rory had it going for while until he bogeyed 13, pretty much putting the kibosh on his chances. While players such as Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Cameron Smith, et al had good rounds by any measure, they were fairly pedestrian. In other words, they birdied the holes you expected them to. Dylan Frittelli had the best round of the would be challengers, but he's no serious threat. Until you've gone through the Sunday grinder at ANGC, you're not prepared to deal with the heat from the spotlight.
The question now becomes 1) will anyone make a serious run at DJ and 2) will he come back to the field and let a bunch of guys back into the tournament? He seems to be in total command of his game right now, so I don't see the latter happening. However, stranger things have occured to players with big leads at ANGC on Sunday. By the same token, I don't see anyone at -12 making a run at him either. As such, the tournament is really DJ's to lose. I hope we have a compelling finish tomorrow, but as of now I don't see anyone giving serious chase to Dustin Johnson.