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Woodland and Mullinax shot 6-under 66 at Congaree Golf Club. One
shot behind the leaders are defending champion Rory McIlroy of
Northern Ireland, rising star Tom Kim of South Korea, Aaron
Wise, Wyndham Clark, Kurt Kitayama and Australia's Cam Davis.
Two back at 4-under 67 are Norway's Viktor Hovland, England's
Tyrrell Hatton, Seamus Power of Ireland, Sungjae Im and Si Woo
Kim of South Korea and Taylor Moore.
Woodland birdied his first three holes and added four more,
including the par-4 17th and 18th, to go with two bogeys.
"I drove the golf ball well all day, saw some putts go in and
that kind of freed up the ball-striking," Woodland said.
"Playing from the fairway out here is a huge advantage and I was
able to attack a little bit from there as well. All in all, I
had all three aspect of driving, ball-striking, putting going on
and it was a good day."
Woodland won the 2019 U.S. Open but hasn't won any tournament
since. He missed more cuts (12) than he made (11) in the 2021-22
season and is looking to rebound.
Mullinax opened with five birdies on the front nine and got up
to 7 under through 12 holes, but he wrapped up with six straight
4s -- five pars and his lone bogey.
"We don't get to play these kind of courses all the time, so I
think it's a lot of fun for us and a treat," Mullinax said of
Congaree, hosting the CJ Cup for the first time. "You could hit
any shot you want and you don't have to hit the same shot over
and over, which is really fun about this golf course and kind of
brings an artistic feel to it."
McIlroy had the only bogey-free round of anyone in the top 10,
highlighted by three straight birdies at Nos. 4-6. He won the
event last season when it was held in Las Vegas.
"It's a golf course where you can hit driver a lot, the fairways
are quite generous, but obviously if you go off the fairways,
you can get in some trouble," McIlroy said. "But I drove the
ball well today. I took advantage of the par 5s, the drivable
par 4 on the back nine there, 15."
Wise made six of his seven birdies by sticking his approaches 8
feet or closer to the pin, including 1 foot away at the par-4
third and par-3 seventh.
Other major champions on the leaderboard included Justin Thomas
and Irishman Shane Lowry at 3-under 68, Spaniard Jon Rahm and
Jason Day of Australia at 2-under 69 and Collin Morikawa and
England's Matt Fitzpatrick at 1-under 70.
--Field Level Media
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