Garcia Holds Two Stoke Lead at Wachovia

While most of you were busy tracking the Big Break III winner Danielle Amiee on the LPGA Tour today, you missed a very entertaining first round at the Wachovia Championship. Spain’s Sergio Garcia lit up the first nine holes by shooting 30. He finished his first round at Quail Hollow with a 66, of which he was disappointed. Garcia said, “I’m happy about the round, but at the same time, I look at it and say, ‘This could have been amazing.’ I didn’t make as many putts as I deserved. I could have easily shot 61 or 62 – easily could have shot that.” A “disappointing” 66 was still enough to hold the two-shot lead.

The final holes were tough today for many players, with the exception of Sergio Garcia, due to gusty cross winds and cool temperatures. For example, defending champion Joey Sindelar hit his tee shot on the 18th far into the trees on the right side and was left with 3 wood, 3 wood, and wedge into the green. “The bogey at 18 was a disaster,” said Sindelar. “You don’t want to tell a lot of people that you hit your 3-wood for your third shot.” He finished with a respectable first round score of 68. Sindelar is among four players tied for second at four-under par.

Sergio Garcia, who started on the tenth hole, broke the back-nine record by two shots with a 30. He looked like he was on track to pull far away from the rest of the field until he bogied the first and second holes. Garcia finished his day on the par 4 ninth hole where he smoked a 5-iron 6 feet from the hole on his approach, good enough to wrap up the round with a birdie. He had eight birdies and only missed one green on the day.

In his first competitive round since his victory at Augusta, Tiger Woods faultered with four bogeys. He made some mental errors of which he paid the price for. Woods chose a 7-iron for his 191 yard approach into the par-5 seventh which found the water after coming up short. Woods said, “I was trying to rip a 7-iron in there, and the prudent play would have been a 6-iron over the ridge, two-putt for birdie, it was one of the mental mistakes I made. It was just a horrible hole.” Woods, the number one ranked player in the world, finished the first round with a 70, enough to be tied for tenth place.

Phil Mickelson, also playing in his first event since the Masters three weeks ago, had trouble making short putts. It also seemed that spectators were getting in the way of his ball. He hit two spectators throughout the day, including one gentleman in the head. “On my last hole, I hit a gentleman on the head, and he had a decent amount of blood,” Mickelson said. “Boy, I feel terrible. I certainly wasn’t trying to hit it there. To have that happen, it was not the greatest finish to his day.” Let’s hope that gentleman was stitched up well and has a quick recovery. Mickelson finished with a 71, tied for seventeenth.

The world’s second ranked player Vijay Singh three putted for bogey three times but luckily had six birdies to finish with a solid first round score of 70. Jim Furyk, who had a strong second place finish at the MCI Heritage, held the lead until a double bogey from a bunker on 18. He is currently at three-under.

Missing short putts seemed to be many of the player’s forte today. Woods lipped out a four foot putt on the sixth, Perry missed a four foot par putt, Garcia missed two putts inside of eight feet for birdie, and Singh had three three putts just to name a few whom were in contention for the lead.

There were many popular players whom may have left their game at home this week, including Zach Johnson (+8), David Toms (+7), and last week’s winner Tim Petrovic (+5).

Quail Hollow isn’t playing too tough, largely in part due to mild temperatures that have kept the rough from growing out. Temperatures should stay mild for the next couple of days until reaching the mid-80s for the final round on Sunday.

Pos   Player                 Tot
1     Sergio Garcia           -6
T2    Patrick Sheehan         -4
T2    Joey Sindelar           -4
T2    Kenny Perry             -4
T2    Richard S. Johnson      -4
T6    Jim Furyk               -3
T6    Andrew Magee            -3
T6    Jeff Maggert            -3
T6    Jesper Parnevik         -3

Photo Credits: © AP Photo/Chris Keane