From the early wave and making his tourney debut, World No. 218 Ricardo Gouveia finished birdie-bogey-birdie toward an 8-under 31-33=64 in R1 of the opposite-field Barbasol Championship, currently the clubhouse leader by one over six players.
The 30-year-old is making his second (official) start on the PGA TOUR, first since a missed cut at the 2016 Arnold Palmer Invitational on a sponsor exemption (73-74). His other two unofficial results included a 59th at the 2016 Rio Olympics while representing Portugal (as the 34-seed), and he’s won five times around the world in 193 events, including twice last year on the Challenge Tour (in back-to-back starts). Gouveia, who pulled out of yesterday’s pro-am with an injury, commented on it afterwards (link below): “Just from Tuesday to Wednesday, Wednesday morning I just woke up with something on my back and it wasn’t getting any better. Got some treatment yesterday. Didn’t feel great this morning, but warming up felt like it was loosening up, so I just gave it a go and it worked out.” On 12 (of 14) fairways and 17 greens in regulation, the University of Central Florida product lost 0.988 strokes around but gained 1.698 off-the-tee, 2.720 approaching and 2.649 on-the-green with 26 total putts, camouflaging one square (missed par-saver from 5'5") with nine birdies.