Threesome goes low and reaps rewards

Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Zach Johnson, right, shakes hands with Ryan Palmer after they finished their first round of play.

NORTON, Mass. -- Ryan Palmer called it a "wild" day while Jason Day happily branded it "really weird." And they weren't talking about the uncertain and surprisingly tentative approach of Hurricane Earl, either.

Palmer and Day played with Zach Johnson on Friday during the first round of the Deutsche Bank Championship. And when all was tallied up, the trio had combined for a cumulative score of 23 under -- while making a whopping 26 birdies and dropping just three shots to par.

"It was an unbelievable day," Palmer said. "I've never been a part of a group like that in any round of golf on TOUR, and to go out with ... two guys that I like a lot, and for us to play like that and shoot 23 under par, it was awesome and fun. We all fed off each other and had a great time."

Johnson and Day went the lowest during a round when players were allowed to lift, clean and place due to the unpredictable weather forecast, and their 63s left them tied for the lead. Palmer, though, was in a eight-man group only one stroke off the pace on a soggy, stop-and-start Friday at TPC Boston.

"It was one of those days kind of like when you play by yourself; if you get off to a good start it kind of breeds momentum," Johnson said. "But we all got off to a good start, so it just kind of catapulted our day, I think. We all birdied the first hole, and it fed into the remainder of the day.

"I think the course setup was conservative, and rightfully so based on the potential for weather and trying to even out the waves if possible. The whole staff did a great job there. The course was there for the taking. There was minimal wind, and the greens were absolutely perfect. So with that, those two combinations, it just makes for an accessible day."

To be sure. But to see the three play well shouldn't be a surprise, either. After all, each won a PGA TOUR event earlier this year. Not to mention, they were paired together based on their FedExCup ranking -- Palmer was No. 13, Day 14th and Johnson No. 15. Day and Palmer tied for fifth last week at The Barclays, too.

"It was wild," Palmer said. "... The way we kept making birdie after birdie, and when all three of us were doing it, that makes it fun for the people watching and of course for us in the group."

Johnson, who tied for third at the PGA Championship three weeks ago, and Palmer have known each other since their days on the mini-tours. Day, at 22, is 11 years younger, but he and his wife, Ellie, have wasted little time turning acquaintances into friends in his three years on TOUR.

"It's nice to play with friends," Johnson said. " Like I said, when we're all playing decent it makes it that much better. Yeah, joking around, just a casual round of golf. It was nice. We got to the ninth hole, which was our 18th hole, and to an extent it felt like we were out there for 10 holes. It didn't feel like it took that long, so it was kind of nice."

For Day, the key was enjoying himself.

"I try and have as much fun as possible when I'm out there because it puts me in a good mood, and you can't play golf cranky," the young Aussie said. "It's a little hard to do that. But two guys that were with me today, they're a bunch of fun, and I've known those guys for a few years now. ... It was just a really good, fun day."

Johnson probably didn't realize it at the time, but he set the tone when he chipped in from 20 feet for the first birdie. Palmer followed with a 4-footer and then Day tapped in from 21 inches for the third.

The Aussie, who won his first PGA TOUR event at the HP Byron Nelson Championship earlier this year, was the leader at the turn after going out in 30. But Johnson and Palmer managed to keep pace with four consecutive birdies of their own, starting on No. 17 and No. 18, respectively.

"I had a string and they were having strings within that string," Johnson said. "... There can be a little bit of pressure there, but we've all seen it. I've seen guys shoot 28, 29 on the front and I shoot par. You've just got to go out there and literally take each shot for what it is. Hopefully it starts to rub off on you and you start to focus a little better maybe and maybe see some putts drop.

"That was the thing today. We all hit it pretty good. We all hit a lot of fairways. We all hit it good, but we all putted great. Really, Ryan missed about a seven- to ten-footer on 4, and I don't know if we missed another putt inside that length all day, frankly. So that's really what it was today was the tale of the putters, I think."

As might be expected with such stellar play, the three actually did a little bit of everything right. Day and Palmer hit 12 fairways and 14 greens while Johnson hit 10 and 13, respectively. But the putters were definitely hot as Johnson, who had 23, said. Day used just 24 putts while Palmer had 27.

"I don't know if it was like a record or anything, but we all played very, very well," Day said in understatement.