Holmes and Allenby race to Sawgrass lead
Source: Agencies |
May 8, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
J B Holmes and Australia's Robert Allenby shared The Players Championship lead at 6-under 66 after the opening round in Florida yesterday.
Coming off the worst performance of his career, Tiger Woods survived a rugged start and made his only bogey on the final hole for a 2-under 70 at the TPC Sawgrass.
Holmes and Allenby were a stroke ahead of eight players, including England's Lee Westwood and 49-year-old Kenny Perry. In muggy conditions with only a swirling breeze late in the day, 36 players broke 70, the most for the opening round of this tournament since 1994.
"It was a fun day, one of those rounds where everything was going pretty good," said Holmes, who played bogey-free and only once came close to making a bogey.
"It's kind of one of those rounds where it's not easy, but it felt pretty easy."
Allenby played in the afternoon, when the breeze kicked up, and only had one lapse with a three-putt on the par-3 eighth.
Conditions were perfect for low scoring, and the Stadium Course allows for that with reachable par 5s and a few hole locations in areas that could be attacked.
"Greens were a bit slow out there, definitely quite soft after the rain that we've had the last couple of days," Allenby said. "It definitely made it very accessible, some of those flags. I'm happy with the start, just happy to be amongst it."
Francesco Molinari of Italy had a chance to join the leaders until he chopped up the par-5 ninth hole for a bogey and joined the large group at 68. Those at 69 included Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh, along with Davis Love III, who showed that even a benign Sawgrass still has some bite. He was tied for the lead until making bogeys on the last three holes.
Masters champion Phil Mickelson, who has a chance to be No. 1 in the world for the first time with a victory and Woods finishing out of the top five, didn't play his best but still managed a 70.
"Shooting 70 today isn't the round that you want," Mickelson said. "We came out in perfect conditions. There wasn't much wind, the greens were receptive, and there were a lot of low scores.
"But the reason I think this was a good day for me is I just didn't have it. So tomorrow if I can come out and get hot and shoot something in the mid-60s, I can get back in the tournament."
That usually isn't a problem for Woods, although last week at Quail Hollow raised several questions about whether his head was in the game with so much going on in his personal life. Woods had his second-highest round (79) and the worst 36-hole score (153) of his career to miss the cut by eight shots.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
