Korea star Kim trails day one leader Speith by one shot at FedEx St Jude

Jordan Speith shot a bogey-free 63, his lowest first-round card of the season, to lead the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis on Thursday, closely trailed by Korean star Joohyung ‘Tom’ Kim.

Spieth, FedEx Cup champion in 2015, hit five birdies and one eagle to seize his 13th career 18-hole lead on the Tennessee course with a 7 under par 63 in difficult conditions.

“I feel good,” the former Hero World Challenge winner said later. “It didn’t quite feel as tight ball-striking-wise, but then all of a sudden, I ended up hitting a good one on 15 and then chipping in on 16, so I think it was solid.”

A shot behind, Kim fired a superb 64 in his return from an ankle injury as his fashion sense set social media abuzz again. With pants rolled up to the calves, fans and viewers were left wondering if it was done to help the right ankle which suffered a grade 1 tear last month.

“It was wet, man, gosh. It's one of the wettest rounds I've played in long time,” Kim said later. “It's like, I think a lot of people are actually having fun out of it, way more than I thought. I didn't want to get myself dirty. Just don't like it. I've had a really bad week once this year, so just trying to stay away from it really.

He was referring to the PGA Championship in May when he fell into a mud patch while trying to retrieve his ball. And with Memphis enduring torrential rain, Kim was mindful of staying clean and rolled up his white pants, which choice of colour was probably his only mistake of the day.

“I didn't have unlimited pants, so I had to make sure they stayed really clean,” he said. “A lot of people seemed to have a lot of laughs on it, but I just thought it was pretty convenient. I chose the wrong colour, obviously, but my caddie Joe (Skovron) actually said he doesn't really care what I do as long as I make birdies and eagles, so it kind of worked. Definitely not white tomorrow, that's for sure.”

Kim, who has one win and six other top-10s this season, showed no ill-effects of his ankle injury from The Open in England which forced him to sit out of his defence at the Wyndham Championship last week, as he snared seven birdies against a lone bogey. At Royal Liverpool last month, the young Korean took a good tied second place behind winner Brian Harman.

Fellow-Korean Byeong Hun An, back in the playoffs for the first time in three years, Sungjae Im and Hideki Matsuyama all opened with 67s for a share of 15th place while Si Woo Kim was a further shot back in the 70-man field.

Reigning FedEx Cup champion Rory McIlroy opened with a 67 while Jon Rahm, who entered the playoffs as the no. 1, uncharacteristically carded a 73. Emiliano Grillo and Collin Morikawa were joint third on 65.

Over the first 15 holes, Kim was on point as he turned in 4-under after starting from the 10th hole. He made three successive birdies from the second hole and left an exclamation mark with a 31-foot birdie conversion on the fourth and was fortunate to save bogey on the seventh hole from seven feet following an errant drive.

“Yeah, played really solid for the first 13, 14 holes. Kind of had a few hiccups coming in, but no, I played pretty good, and definitely played pretty stress free for most of the way. It wasn't my best coming in, but nice to kind of be able to save the round and finish on a good note,” said Kim, who started the week in 14th place on the FedEx Cup standings and is projected to move up to fourth.