Zach Johnson secured a narrow one-point advantage following Friday’s opening round of the Mitsubishi Electric Classic at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Georgia, after making birdie on the 18th hole.
The tournament marks a significant departure from tradition by implementing a Modified Stableford scoring format designed to promote bold, attacking golf. Instead of counting strokes against par, players earn points for each hole: minus-1 for bogey, zero for par, two points for birdie, five points for eagle, and minus-3 for double bogey.
This represents the first Modified Stableford event on the PGA Tour Champions circuit since 2002, according to tour officials.
Johnson embraced the format change, describing his playing style as that of “a conservatively aggressive guy.” The two-time major winner celebrated his 50th birthday in February and captured his inaugural senior tour victory in March.
“There’s opportunities on certain courses, and this would be one of them, where I’m going to push a little bit more, I’m going to hit the driver instead of what have you,” Johnson explained. “So I think the beauty of this place is the character. You’ve got short, you’ve got long, you’ve got left, you’ve got right, you’ve got up, you’ve got down. You can be aggressive on certain holes, you can hit driver a lot of places, you can lay it back in a lot of places. So you’ve got to be committed, and it gives you options.”
Johnson started strong with six birdies and just one bogey through his opening eight holes. While his scoring pace decreased on the back nine, he climbed from +13 to +15 points by making a two-putt birdie on the final par-5.
His total of 15 points places him one ahead of Ben Crane and Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee, who are tied for second at +14. Three players share fourth place at +12: Paul Stankowski, South Africa’s Retief Goosen, and South Korea’s K.J. Choi. Defending champion Jerry Kelly, who won last year under traditional stroke play rules, sits tied for seventh with +11 points.
Jaidee produced a flawless round featuring seven birdies and no bogeys.
“You have to make more points because … par (is) nothing,” Jaidee noted. “That’s why we gameplan to attack the hole. When you hit in the fairway, you have a short iron, you try to attack the pin. That’s why we do it today. And good thing to me, I had pretty good iron today. Putting working today.”
Crane, who also turned 50 this year alongside Johnson, finished runner-up at last week’s Senior PGA Championship in his first senior major appearance.
Despite encountering two bogeys during Friday’s round, Crane recovered by making birdie on three of his final four holes.
“Just didn’t play as great as I scored, but that’s the way it works in this format,” Crane said. “Actually, Retief and I both shot 66 and I had 14 points and he had 12. Had some bogeys in there that don’t cost you as much. All in all, just thankful. I really putted well coming down the stretch there, gave myself some opportunities, so just a fun day.”
