AKRON, Ohio — Jim Furyk made a detour to Florida to sit on his back porch and hang out with his kids as he tried to figure out why decent golf was producing ordinary scores. The short break appeared to do him a world of good Thursday in the Bridgestone Invitational.
With seven birdies and a 30-foot eagle putt, Furyk had a 7-under-par 63 for his best score ever at Firestone and a two-shot lead over Lee Slattery of England.
The conditions could not have been more ideal with sunshine, heat and very little wind, along with carpet for fairways and smooth greens. It showed in some of the tee shots on the South Course - 58 drives of at least 350 yards, and a 427-yarder by Branden Grace of South Africa - and mostly in the scoring.
Luke Donald, the world’s No. 1 player, and Masters champion Bubba Watson were among those at 66. Thirty players in the 78-man field at this World Golf Championship managed to break par.
Tiger Woods was not among them. He was 3 under after back-to-back birdies to start the back nine, but had to lay up with his third shot on the par-5 16th after driving into the trees and ended his round with a three-putt bogey from 25 feet for a 70. It was his second-worst start at Firestone, a course where he has won seven times. The other was a 74 in 2010, his last week without a swing coach.
“I think I averaged about four putts per hole, so it was a great day on the greens,” said Woods, who lost his touch on the greens but at least kept his sarcasm.
Since missing out on a chance to win the U.S. Open, Furyk has tied for 34th in two tournaments and missed two cuts, including last week in Canada. For a guy who is 15th in the Ryder Cup standings - even a victory this week would not make him eligible for the U.S. team - this was no time to be stuck in neutral.
So when he had another weekend off after rounds of 70-70 at the Canadian Open, he flew home for three days.
“I think more than anything I needed a little time to clear my head,” Furyk said. “It wasn’t anything that was going wrong, [but] why I wasn’t playing better. I just felt like I needed to come in here and quit concentrating on trying to be so mechanically sound and just go play some golf and try to score and get the ball in the hole a little bit. It worked today. I did a lot better job of scoring.
“It’s been a while since I made seven birdies and an eagle in a round,” he said. “So it was a lot of fun.”
The average score was 70.33, which is on the low side for Firestone.
Defending champion Adam Scott, in his first tournament since making four consecutive bogeys to lose the British Open, had a four-putt from just inside 10 feet early in his round and shot 71. So did Phil Mickelson, while British Open champion Ernie Els had a 73.
This is a course where players can smash it off the tee, and most of them did. Watson said he hit driver on all but three of the long holes. When he was asked how many fairways he missed, Watson replied, “I don’t know. I shot 4 under. That’s all I know.”
That ultimately was all that mattered.
Grace, who along with Woods is the only player with three wins this year, crushed a tee shot into the speed slot on the 656-yard 16th hole that left him only 222 yards to the hole. One problem.
“It was a reasonable opportunity,” Grace said. “But I was right between clubs. I could either thump a 3-iron or hit my rescue, and going just over the back of that green and chipping back is not the best.”
So he laid up with a gap wedge, and then hit another gap wedge just over the back of the green, the very place where he feared his hybrid might go. He settled for par.
“Tiger and I were talking about it going up the 17th,” Grace said. “It’s a pity you hit a great drive and go gap wedge, gap wedge. It doesn’t make sense.”
Grace had one of three drives that traveled over 400 yards, and there were 58 drives of at least 350 yards. Firestone always allows for extra distance when it’s dry and the fairways are running fast. But it reached the point that when Furyk was told he hit seven drives over 300 yards, he said, “That’s it?”
“I never crack the top 150 in driving distance on tour,” Furyk said. “If all of a sudden,out of all the guys that played today, I was 30th in today’s field, I would say I was a lot longer than normal. But if I end up being - was there 80 guys in the field, 78? If I was 63rd today, I really wouldn’t worry about it.”
He was 59th.
“It was hot,” Furyk said. “The ball is going pretty far and the ground is quite firm. Statistically, it’ll probably look pretty good.”
PGA TOUR Romero leads Noh
RENO, Nev. - Andres Romero had seven birdies in a bogey-free first round at the Reno-Tahoe Open to take a one-point lead over South Korean rookie Seung-Yul Noh.
Romero, from Argentina, had 14 points Thursday under the modified Stableford scoring system that puts a premium on aggressive play. Players receive eight points for double eagle, five for eagle, two for birdie, zero for par, minus-one for bogey and minus-three for double bogey or worse.
It’s the first time the scoring system has been used on the PGA Tour since the 2006 International in Colorado.
The 21-year-old Noh seven birdies and a bogey for 13 points at Montreux Golf & Country Club, where only Americans have won in the tourney’s 13 previous years.
Josh Teater, John Mallinger and Ricky Barnes were tied for third with 11 points. John Daly (Dardanelle, Razorbacks) was in a group another point back after carding six birdies and two bogeys.
Bryce Molder (Conway) had nine points and Glen Day (Little Rock) finished with six.
WEB.COM Three in lead
OMAHA, Neb. - Luke Guthrie, Bubba Dickerson and Aaron Goldberg all shot a 9-under-par 62 to share the first-round lead in the Cox Classic at Champions Run.
Jim Herman shot 63 while Russell Henley, Fabian Gomez and Nate Smith each shot a 64.
Tag Ridings (Arkansas Razorbacks) was one of five golfers to shoot 65. Scott Gardiner (Farmington) had a 66, and David Lingmerth (Razorbacks) and Ron Whittaker (Little Rock) each shot 67.
Leaderboard PGA TOUR
WGC-BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL At Firestone Country Club’s South Course (par 70, 7,400 yards), Akron, Ohio; Purse $8.5 million First of four rounds Jim Furyk ............................. 32-31-63 Lee Slattery .......................... 31-34-65 Bubba Watson ...................... 33-33-66 Ben Crane ............................. 34-32-66 Luke Donald ......................... 32-34-66 Rafael Cabrera Bello ............ 34-32-66 Simon Dyson ....................... 33-33-66 John Senden ........................ 31-35-66
WEB.COM COX CLASSIC At Champions Run (par 71, 7,170 yards), Omaha, Neb.; Purse: $650,000 First of four rounds Luke Guthrie ......................... 32-30-62 Bubba Dickerson .................. 31-31-62 Aaron Goldberg .................... 28-34-62 Jim Herman ......................... 33-30-63 Russell Henley ..................... 31-33-64 Fabian Gomez ...................... 32-32-64 Nate Smith ........................... 33-31-64 ARKANSANS Tag Ridings .......................... 33-32-65 Scott Gardiner ...................... 32-34-66 David Lingmerth .................. 35-32-67 Ron Whittaker ...................... 33-34-67
Sports, Pages 23 on 08/03/2012