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Pro Sports
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Friday, May 09, 2008, 11:38 AM
Garcia builds early two-shot lead at The Players The Associated Press PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The flag was in a tempting location, back and left on the 13th green at the TPC Sawgrass with a pond running alongside the left side. Sergio Garcia took dead aim with a 7-iron and the ball never left its target. This is nothing new with Garcia, who rarely struggles to make solid contact. What pleased him was to see the 6-foot putt break sharply toward the water and drop into the center of the cup for one of seven birdies Thursday at The Players Championship, leading to a 6-under 66 and a two-shot lead. "I'm just looking forward to keep doing the same things -- keep hitting the ball well, keep chipping well and keep putting well," Garcia said. "And then hopefully, by the end of the week, we'll be where we are supposed to be." That would be posing with a trophy, something Garcia has not done in nearly three years. The 28-year-old Spaniard has strung together three impressive rounds on the frightening Stadium Course, even if his timing is a little off. The first two scores (67-66) came last year and enabled him to finish second. This one was merely a great start, but he'll take it. Garcia is mired in an 0-for-53 drought on the PGA Tour, the longest of his career, and while he is savvy enough to realize that leading after one round only amounts to a pat on the back, it was a small step in the right direction. "At the end of the day, the only thing I can do is keep working on it, keep giving myself chances, and it's going to happen," Garcia said. "I feel like I'm getting closer and closer. At least now, I feel like I can do it, and it's just a matter of being able to do it." Els was at 2 under until his wedge came up 20 feet short of the island green on the 17th, and he barely kept his third shot on land. He wound up with a triple bogey, and a 12-foot birdie on the final hole for a 72 didn't improve his spirits much. "I think they should blow it up," Els said. "Everything you worked for in 41/2 hours, in one shot it's all gone." Garcia might face a tougher task in the second round, for he also played in the morning. Only eight of the 34 rounds under par came in the afternoon with increasingly blustery conditions. Todd Hamilton was the best among late starters with a 69, while Wachovia winner Anthony Kim rallied for a 70. Goydos was among 19 players who contributed 20 balls into the pond that surrounds the island green, although he escaped with bogey that changed his fortunes. Goydos rode that save to three straight birdies on his back nine and a round in the 60s for the first time in his 10 trips to The Players Championship. Phil Mickelson, trying to become the first player in the history of this tournament to successfully defend his title, was flirting with the leaders until a sloppy middle to his round put him at 70. MICHELOB ULTRA OPEN In Williamsburg, Va., the booming drives were there, but more often than not, Michelle Wie didn't know where they were going in her first round on the LPGA Tour since February. The best scores, as usual, belonged to just about everyone else -- a course record-tying 63 by Scotland's Mhairi McKay, and a potential battle looming between Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam in the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill. Once the most heralded young player in the women's game, Wie managed just one birdie in a zig-zagging 4-over 75 on a soggy day, even as the River Course yielded its fourth 8-under 63 in six years, 64s to Sorenstam and Sun Young Yoo, and 65s to Ochoa and Diana D'Alessio. While 90 players in the field of 144 shot par or better, Wie was lucky to get off as easily as she did. She pulled her drive on the par-5 seventh, and only a tree kept it from flying out of bounds. She hit into the greenside rough on the par-3 13th, and it kicked onto the green. She hit her drive way right on the wide open par-4 14th, and another tree knocked it down. In the Fields Open in Hawaii in February, the Stanford freshman tied for last among the 74 players who made the cut -- 20 strokes behind winner Paula Creamer. ITALIAN OPEN In Milan, Italy, John Daly shot a 5-under 67 in the Italian Open, leaving him three strokes behind first-round leaders Ross McGowan and Marco Ruiz. The 609th-ranked Daly had seven birdies and two bogeys. He hasn't finished in the top 10 in a tournament in three years. ======================================================== Leaderboard Thursday At TPC Sawgrass, Players Stadium Course Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Purse: $9.5 million Yardage: 7,215; Par 72 (36-36) First Round Sergio Garcia 34-32 -- 66 -6 Kenny Perry 33-35 -- 68 -4 Paul Goydos 32-36 -- 68 -4 Heath Slocum 33-36 -- 69 -3 Steve Elkington 36-33 -- 69 -3 Ian Poulter 36-33 -- 69 -3 Niclas Fasth 32-37 -- 69 -3 Todd Hamilton 36-33 -- 69 -3 John Merrick 35-35 -- 70 -2 Nicholas Thompson 35-35 -- 70 -2 Brett Quigley 34-36 -- 70 -2 Fred Couples 34-36 -- 70 -2 Troy Matteson 35-35 -- 70 -2 Angel Cabrera 33-37 -- 70 -2 Phil Mickelson 35-35 -- 70 -2 Kevin Stadler 37-33 -- 70 -2 Jose Maria Olazabal 32-38 -- 70 -2 Ben Crane 37-33 -- 70 -2 Miguel A. Jimenez 35-35 -- 70 -2 Anthony Kim 34-36 -- 70 -2 Boo Weekley 36-34 -- 70 -2 D.J. Trahan 33-37 -- 70 -2 Jeff Quinney 35-36 -- 71 -1 Tommy Armour III 33-38 -- 71 -1 Briny Baird 37-34 -- 71 -1 Mike Weir 35-36 -- 71 -1 Brett Wetterich 35-36 -- 71 -1 Woody Austin 37-34 -- 71 -1 Scott Verplank 34-37 -- 71 -1 Aaron Baddeley 35-36 -- 71 -1 Soren Hansen 34-37 -- 71 -1 J.J. Henry 34-37 -- 71 -1 Chris DiMarco 36-35 -- 71 -1 Stewart Cink 33-38 -- 71 -1 Rich Beem 35-37 -- 72 E Ken Duke 34-38 -- 72 E Bernhard Langer 36-36 -- 72 E Rod Pampling 34-38 -- 72 E Padraig Harrington 35-37 -- 72 E Daniel Chopra 36-36 -- 72 E Ryan Moore 34-38 -- 72 E Pat Perez 36-36 -- 72 E Jose Coceres 35-37 -- 72 E Alex Cejka 36-36 -- 72 E Kevin Na 37-35 -- 72 E Billy Mayfair 35-37 -- 72 E Jesper Parnevik 36-36 -- 72 E Jeff Maggert 37-35 -- 72 E Brian Gay 36-36 -- 72 E Ernie Els 34-38 -- 72 E Brandt Snedeker 34-38 -- 72 E Johnson Wagner 37-35 -- 72 E J.B. Holmes 33-39 -- 72 E Stuart Appleby 35-37 -- 72 E Tim Petrovic 37-36 -- 73 + 1 Tom Lehman 36-37 -- 73 + 1 Davis Love III 37-36 -- 73 + 1 Bart Bryant 36-37 -- 73 + 1 Dustin Johnson 35-38 -- 73 + 1 Rory Sabbatini 37-36 -- 73 + 1 Henrik Stenson 36-37 -- 73 + 1 Kevin Sutherland 35-38 -- 73 + 1 Ryuji Imada 38-35 -- 73 + 1 Nick O'Hern 33-40 -- 73 + 1 Michael Allen 37-36 -- 73 + 1 Tim Herron 36-37 -- 73 + 1 Chad Campbell 37-36 -- 73 + 1 Retief Goosen 38-35 -- 73 + 1 Lee Westwood 38-35 -- 73 + 1 Jeff Overton 37-37 -- 74 + 2 Steve Flesch 36-38 -- 74 + 2 Joe Ogilvie 39-35 -- 74 + 2 Brian Bateman 36-38 -- 74 + 2 Fred Funk 36-38 -- 74 + 2 Stephen Ames 36-38 -- 74 + 2 Jerry Kelly 37-37 -- 74 + 2 Jason Bohn 37-37 -- 74 + 2 Bo Van Pelt 40-34 -- 74 + 2 Mathias Gronberg 38-36 -- 74 + 2 Mathew Goggin 36-38 -- 74 + 2 Cliff Kresge 38-36 -- 74 + 2 Dean Wilson 38-36 -- 74 + 2 Michael Campbell 37-37 -- 74 + 2 Carl Pettersson 35-39 -- 74 + 2 Ben Curtis 36-38 -- 74 + 2 Jim Furyk 37-37 -- 74 + 2 Rocco Mediate 36-38 -- 74 + 2 Robert Allenby 36-38 -- 74 + 2 Camilo Villegas 36-38 -- 74 + 2 Charlie Wi 37-37 -- 74 + 2 Greg Kraft 36-39 -- 75 + 3 Justin Leonard 36-39 -- 75 + 3 Vijay Singh 36-39 -- 75 + 3 John Mallinger 37-38 -- 75 + 3 Tom Pernice, Jr. 38-37 -- 75 + 3 Adam Scott 34-41 -- 75 + 3 Sean O'Hair 38-37 -- 75 + 3 Luke Donald 37-38 -- 75 + 3 Dudley Hart 38-37 -- 75 + 3 Matt Jones 38-37 -- 75 + 3 Nick Watney 39-37 -- 76 + 4 Charley Hoffman 38-38 -- 76 + 4 Bubba Watson 37-39 -- 76 + 4 Fredrik Jacobson 39-37 -- 76 + 4 Mark Wilson 40-36 -- 76 + 4 Mark Calcavecchia 40-36 -- 76 + 4 Jonathan Byrd 37-39 -- 76 + 4 John Senden 38-38 -- 76 + 4 Zach Johnson 38-38 -- 76 + 4 Bill Haas 39-37 -- 76 + 4 Brian Davis 36-41 -- 77 + 5 Bob Estes 37-40 -- 77 + 5 George McNeill 40-37 -- 77 + 5 Steve Stricker 35-42 -- 77 + 5 Steve Lowery 40-37 -- 77 + 5 Geoff Ogilvy 37-40 -- 77 + 5 Stephen Leaney 39-38 -- 77 + 5 Charles Warren 39-38 -- 77 + 5 Tim Clark 39-38 -- 77 + 5 Richard Sterne 35-42 -- 77 + 5 Steve Marino 38-39 -- 77 + 5 Shaun Micheel 39-38 -- 77 + 5 David Toms 38-39 -- 77 + 5 Andres Romero 38-39 -- 77 + 5 Paul Casey 37-40 -- 77 + 5 Tim Wilkinson 40-37 -- 77 + 5 Peter Lonard 37-40 -- 77 + 5 Richard Johnson 38-39 -- 77 + 5 John Rollins 37-41 -- 78 + 6 Nathan Green 37-41 -- 78 + 6 Vaughn Taylor 37-41 -- 78 + 6 Mark Hensby 39-39 -- 78 + 6 Justin Rose 39-39 -- 78 + 6 Matt Kuchar 37-41 -- 78 + 6 Charles Howell III 38-41 -- 79 + 7 K.J. Choi 44-35 -- 79 + 7 Robert Garrigus 41-38 -- 79 + 7 Lucas Glover 40-40 -- 80 + 8 Shigeki Maruyama 42-39 -- 81 + 9 J.P. Hayes 42-41 -- 83 + 11 Hunter Mahan WD Jason Gore WD Cameron Beckman WD ======================================================== At a glance PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- A brief look Thursday at the first round of The Players Championship: Defending champion: Phil Mickelson was at 70, trying to become the first repeat winner in the 34-year history of the event. Island Green: Twenty balls found the water on the par-3 17th. Shot of the day: Rich Beem holed out from 132 yards for eagle on the seventh hole. Key statistic: Eight of the 34 players who broke par played in the afternoon. Noteworthy: Garcia is 17-under par in his last three rounds at TPC Sawgrass. Quoteworthy: "The course tempts you into doing really stupid things." -- Paul Goydos. Television: Friday, 1 p.m to 7 p.m. EDT, Golf Channel.
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