From Mississippi to Australia, Players Championship leaderboard is a mix of styles, experience

Chad Ramey stepped onto the premises of the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass for the first time in his 30 years on Monday.

Four days later, the Fulton, Miss., native and brand-new father of one week figured out how to tour Pete Dye's demonic design without a single bogey and a whole lot of birdies.

Ramey birdied three of his first seven holes, capped by a 30-foot putt at No. 7, then capped his round with a shot to within 13 inches of the cup at the par-3 17th hole and finished with an 8-under-par 64 to lead two-time major champion Collin Morikawa by one shot and Taylor Pendrith and Ben Griffin by two in the first round of The Players Championship.

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The first round was played in relatively tame conditions, with an afternoon sun baking the already firm greens. Play was suspended at 6:28 p.m. because of darkness, with seven groups and 21 players remaining on the course.

They will return on Friday to resume their round at 7:40 a.m. The second round will start as scheduled at 6:50 a.m. but there is a chance of rain in the afternoon.

Ramey and Morikawa got the best of early-morning conditions. Suh and Burns were the only players from the afternoon wave to crack the top-10.

Ramey, who played golf at Mississippi State, had previously played the Dye's Valley Course for a Korn Ferry Tour event in 2020 that was part of the PGA Tour's return to golf after the COVID-19 pandemic. He tied for 23rd but never made his way to the other side of the practice range to the Stadium Course.

He said his best shot of the day, a wedge into No. 17, was more or less what he expected since he had played the WM Phoenix Open and its par-3 16th hole, in front of thousands of fans.

"It's probably about like I thought it would be," he said. "To be honest, it made it a little easier because earlier in the year I was at Phoenix and played 16. It's kind of the same feel."

Ramey made everything look easy, from hitting 10 fairways and 10 greens, getting up-and-down for par four times, and requiring only 24 putts.

Trust him, he said. It wasn't easy.

"Not easy at all ... I might have made it look that way but it wasn't easy at all," he said. "It was fun, first time to shoot a score on such an iconic course like this. You can't ask for any more."

He's also playing as a father for the first time. His wife Kelly gave birth to their first child, a son, back home in Fulton (population 3,961) last week.

"Obviously golf is a lot less important now, and you never know, maybe that's why I played better today," he said. "It's a lot less important now that I have a child, and hate I'm not there with him, but just glad to be here and to at least play well.

Morikawa played a stretch of six holes at 5-under par, highlighted by a tap-in eagle at the par-5 second hole. He missed birdie attempts of 12, 19 and 6 feet on his last three holes, after one-putting five of six holes.

"Sometimes they drop and sometimes they don't, especially when rounds are going like that," Morikawa said. "You obviously wish to have them, but it is what it is. Overall, the game feels really good, and I'm just going to take that into the next few days and just kind of use that momentum to hopefully play three more really good rounds."

Morikawa, the 2020 PGA and 2021 British Open champion, began his round at No. 10, and bided his time with a string of pars until he dropped a 20-foot putt for birdie at No. 15 and tapped in for birdie at No. 16.

He turned and needed just over 6 feet of putts to play the next two holes at 3-under: a birdie putt of 2 feet, 2 inches at No. 1 and an eagle putt of 3-7 at No. 2, after spanking his second shot onto the green from 235 yards out.

Morikawa then birdied No. 4 from 7 feet and No. 6 from 19 feet.

Taylor Pendrith, a Canadian who played college golf at Kent State, eagled No. 16 and birdied No. 17 on his way to a 67.

Min Woo Lee, also in his first Players, birdied three holes in a row on the back nine, then suffered bogeys on the final two holes to drop into a tie for fourth at 4-under 68 with world No. 2-ranked Scottie Scheffler, RSM Classic winner Adam Svensson of Canada, Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa and Denny McCarthy.

Jon Rahm, the world's No. 1-ranked player, birdied Nos. 16 and 18 but then turned and played the front nine 1-over for a 71. Rory McIlroy, ranked third, had an awful day, beginning with a double-bogey on his first hole, the par-4 10th, and finished with a 76.

The 11 players tied for sixth or better represent five countries. Ramey, Griffin and Lee are in The Players for the first time -- as well as Justin Suh, who was 5-under with three holes to play when the tournament was suspended.

Only Morikawa and Scheffler among the top-10 have won major championships.

But there was some movement in the afternoon. Jordan Spieth shot 69, with three birdies in a row at Nos. 10, 11 and 12, and is in a tie for 12th with 2017 Players champion Si Woo Kim and 2013 U.S. Open champion Justin Rose.

Jason Day, the 2016 Players champion, made a run up the leaderboard with four birdies in six holes, but hit his second shot into the water at the par-5 16th hole from out of the trees, and bogeyed. He settled for a 70, the ninth consecutive Players in which he has been under par in the first round.

Players took advantage of the relatively tame conditions to attack the course, with 39 posting rounds under par in the clubhouse and nine more working on red numbers at the time of the suspension.

But there were some disasters. Nick Watney and Kelly Kraft tied for the highest number at the Island Green, both make quadruple-bogey 7. Watney’s came courtesy of a four-putt from 32 feet, with the last miss coming from 9 inches.

Watney has three holes to play when the round resumes on Friday morning, and he’s 4-over. Kraft shot 80.

Aaron Wise pumped three tee shots into the lake at the par-4 18th hole, finally got his seventh shot in dry land — but in pine straw on the right. He punched out to 69 yards, put his ninth shot on the green and made a 4-footer for a 10 and an 80. That was one off the record set by Andre Stolz in 2005.

Lucas Herbert finished last with an 82, making two double-bogeys and a triple at No. 18.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Early scores by Chad Ramey, Collin Morikawa hold up in Players first round