CROMWELL, Conn. — David Mathis hoped to start strong at the Travelers Championship after missing the cut last week at the U.S. Open.
Mathis, 38, birdied his first hole, then holed out from 158 yards on the par-3 11th hole. He knocked in a 49-foot birdie putt on his third, was at 6 under par after six holes, and finished with a 6-under 64 for a one-shot lead.
“It was an awesome start,” said Mathis, who has never finished better than eighth in a PGA Tour event. “I was hitting a lot of great shots [later], and I guess it felt like a lull compared to how I started.”
Nathan Green, Will Claxton and defending champion Fredrik Jacobson shot 65. U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson and Masters winner Bubba Watson played together and finished in a group of 10 players at 66. The third member paired with Simpson and Watson, PGA champion Keegan Bradley, shot a 68.
“We were relaxed all day,” Simpson said. “Bubba is my Presidents Cup partner. We always laugh together. And I’ve played a lot of golf with Keegan this year. He’s a good friend. We had a lot of fun feeding off each other, and luckily, we all played well.”
Mathis’ ace was the shot of the day. He said he was just trying to cut a 9-iron close to the pin and hit it exactly where he aimed.
Green teed off at 6:50 a.m., well before heat and humidity set in, setting the early mark with a 65. Claxton opened his round with a birdie and an eagle, but finished with a bogey on 18.
“To start out birdie-eagle,that’s huge,” Claxton said. “I obviously had the driver going. I drove the ball well today. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be.”
Jacobson, who picked up his only PGA Tour victory at the event a year ago, spent much of the day atop the leader board before a double bogey on 16 dropped him to 5 under and into a three-way tie for second.
“I knew it was going to be challenging in this heat, and if you start to miss a few shots, it can get to you,” he said. “So I was just happy to get through this day.”
Ken Duke (Arkadelphia, Henderson State) shot 67 and was tied for 15th. Bryce Molder (Conway) shot 71 and was tied for 74th.
EUROPEAN TOUR
Fraser, Zanotti share lead
PULHEIM, Germany - Marcus Fraser of Australia and Fabrizio Zanotti of Paraguay were tied for the lead Thursday after the opening round of the BMW International Open.
Fraser and Zanotti each shot an 8-under-par 64. Chris Wood, Danny Willett and Paul McGinley were next at 65.
Fraser birdied two of his opening three holes and five of his last six, including a long birdie putt on No. 18. It was his lowest score in 21 rounds at the event.
“It’s a great start and I just drove the ball really straight, missing just one fairway,” he said.
Zanotti had seven birdies, a bogey and a double bogey during his first round.
Gregory Havret, Keith Horne, Pelle Edberg and Shiv Kapur each shot 66.
John Daly (Dardanelle, Arkansas Razorbacks) shot a 4-under 68. Daly won this event in 2001.
“I have pretty much loosened up my grip on everything and particularly the putter, so as to get more feel,” Daly said. The two-time major champion also had five woods in his bag for the first time in his career.
“I’ve always played with blades as I hit my long irons really low, but I saw how soft the course was and the fact that so many other guys out here have hybrids,” he said. “They are a lot easier to hit and I am really still getting used to them, and no offense to the senior players but I feel like they’re senior clubs.” NATIONWIDE TOUR
Wittenberg leads
WICHITA, Kan. - Casey Wittenberg shot an 8-underpar 63 on Thursday to take a two-shot lead at the Wichita Open.
Wittenberg had four birdies and shot 31 on the front nine before making two birdies on the back and finishing with an eagle on the par-5 18th.
Kevin Johnson and Jason Gore had 65s for second.
Scott Gardiner (Farmington) shot 66 and was tied for fourth. Ron Whittaker (Little Rock), Tag Ridings (Arkansas Razorbacks) and Glen Day (Little Rock) all shot 67 and were tied for 15th. David Lingmerth (Fayetteville) and Brenden Pappas (Arkansas Razorbacks) shot 69 and were tied for 56th.
WOMEN’S AMATEUR PUBLIC LINKS
Ramsey advances
NESHANIC STATION, N.J. - Ashlan Ramsey parred the par-5 18th hole to beat Jennifer Yang 1-up on Thursdayin the third round of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links at Neshanic Valley.
The 16-year-old Ramsey, from Milledgeville, Ga., will face Grace Na today in the quarterfinals. Na advanced with a 5-and-3 victory over Kristine Odaiyar.
In the other quarterfinals in the lower half of the bracket, Kim Kaufman willplay Chirapat Jao-Javanil. In the upper bracket, Alice Jeong will face Annie Park, and Lakareber Abe will play Kyung Kim.
Arkansas junior Emma Lavy (Fayetteville) lost to Courtney McKim 4 and 3 in the round of 16. Fellow Arkansas junior Emily Tubert lost to Doris Chen 2 and 1 in the round of 32.
Sports, Pages 24 on 06/22/2012