On Wednesday, Ian Poulter posted a video on social media that showed him enduring the PGA Tour’s weekly nasal swab test for COVID-19 ahead of the RBC Heritage.
Warning: it could cause the hairs on the back of your neck to rise and you can’t un-see it.
After surviving having a swab pushed into the back recesses of your head, how painful could Harbour Town Golf Links be? For Poulter, it was a classic case of no pain, no gain. The 44-year-old Englishman enjoyed a walk in the park at the Pete Dye seaside layout, shooting a bogey-free 7-under 64 to share the first-round lead with American Mark Hubbard.
Poulter closed with a pair of birdies, rolling in a 32-foot birdie at the par-3 17th and ripping a 5-iron from 213 yards to 5 feet and rolling in the putt.
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“I’ve always loved coming here to play golf,” said Poulter, a three-time Tour winner. “It’s a fiddly, testy, tricky golf course.”
Poulter recorded his second bogey-free round of the season and 35th of his Tour career, but it was his COVID-19 test that has people talking.
Have you ever wondered what Corona Virus testing in sport looks like…bet you don’t want to know what it feels like! pic.twitter.com/GUCxdn7oiI
— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) June 17, 2020
“It seemed like it was up there for a lot longer than it was last week,” Poulter said. “I mean, I have to be honest, it’s not really the actual test itself. It’s the thought of what — the brush that seems to disappear so far in the middle of your head. It just feels very comfortable. It’s just a bizarre sensation. It’s not painful. It’s just — you just don’t want that brush going as far back as it goes.”
Poulter’s scintillating round was matched among the morning wave by Hubbard, 31, whose bogey-free round of 64 was highlighted by a 10-foot eagle at the par-5 2nd hole.
Hubbard, who played last season on the Korn Ferry Tour, was enjoying the best season of his career before the season was suspended due to the global pandemic. He has posted three top-10 finishes, including a T-2 at the Houston Open, and ranks No. 36 in the FedEx Cup.
But last week, his game showed some rust and as he put it, he “chipped and putted my face off.”
The putter remained hot on Thursday, but more than anything Hubbard credited an improved mental game for his improved performance.
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“I think I’ve grown up and come a long way in the last two years,” he said. “I definitely have the Korn Ferry Tour to thank for that. I needed to go back down there and kind of figure out my game again and my mental state.”
Puerto Rico Open winner Viktor Hovland and Waste Management Phoenix Open champion Webb Simpson headlined a group of seven players who trail by one stroke after firing 6-under 65.
Jordan Spieth rebounded from an early triple bogey to card eight birdies and shoot 66 and is joined by Tony Finau, Matthew NeSmith, Erik van Rooyen, Mackenzie Hughes and Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick, who had to quarantine for 14 days when he returned to the U.S., at 5 under.
Daniel Berger, who won last week’s Charles Schwab Championship in a playoff, opened with 67, as did Rickie Fowler and Brooks Koepka.
Defending champ C.T. Pan, who is playing this week with his wife working as his caddie, shot a 68.
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