6:15 p.m.: The one-under 71 that Tiger Woods shot in the first round of the Buick Open was far from his worst opening round at the event. To wit: He shot the same score four years ago and finished the tournament tied for second.
Still, on a day when Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club was as friendly as a reception line at a wedding -- it was a haven for birdies left and right -- Woods couldn’t cash in.
So heading into Friday’s second round, he faces a tall, but not impossible, order: Woods needs to shoot low to ensure he doesn’t duplicate what he did two weeks ago at the British Open, when he missed the cut.
“I didn’t hit my irons very good, and probably one of the worst putting days I ever had,” said Woods, who birdied four holes and bogeyed three. “I didn’t make anything.”
He shot 37 on the front, and 34 on the back nine.
“I not only have to play well to make the cut, I gotta play well to get myself back in contention, too, so I gotta go low,” said Woods, who won the tournament in 2002 and 2006. “Guys are only going to continue to go low. That’s the way the golf course is playing right now this week. It’s going to be 20-plus, probably, to win the tournament.”
Steve Lowery, who teed off in the morning, shot a nine-under 63 to take the first-round lead.
4:30 p.m.: A few observations about a few players not named Tiger Woods while waiting for Woods to finish his round (FYI: he’s two under with four holes to go).
The leader in the clubhouse, Steve Lowery -- who fired a nine-under 63 -- has won three tournaments this year, and all three have come in playoffs. His best season on the PGA Tour was 1994, when he was 12th on the money list. Described on one Web site as a “soft-spoken Alabama boy,” Lowery has enough experience at Warwick Hills to know that even though nine under looks good on paper, that number is going to go sky-high by Sunday.
"Obviously, nine under is a good start,” he said after his round today. “But if you (don’t) follow it up the rest of the week, it ain’t gonna hang around.”
Standing alone in second place after his eight-under 64 is John Senden, who won the 2006 John Deere Classic and has four top-10 finishes this season. Gotta like this tidbit about the native of Brisbane, Australia, compliments of the PGA Tour’s Web site: Asked what he would be doing if he wasn’t playing golf, Senden said he would be “working the sheep and cattle station owned by the in-laws.”
Y.E. Yang is tied for third with James Nitties at seven under after his round. When Yang won the Honda Classic last March, he became just the second South Korean to win on the PGA Tour (K.J. Choi).
Yang was introduced to golf at 19, when he took a job at a golf course. According to a news report, he’s the son of vegetable farmers. He can also boast that he beat Woods: Yang won the 2006 HSBC Champions in Shanghai, besting a field that included Woods.
1:30 p.m.: Lots to get you updated about at the Buick Open, where we not only have a new leader (Steve Lowery at 63), but Tiger Woods teed off for his opening round an hour ago and is one over through four holes.
Lowery might not be a household name at Warwick Hills, for good reason — he has never played particularly well here. But Lowery, who earned his third PGA Tour career victory at age 47 at last year’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, put on a putting clinic here today.
“You know, I putted obviously really well to shoot nine under, but the last nine holes, I made all the putts — made seven birdies there on the last nine holes, and some of them were tap-ins,” Lowery said.
Lowery, who has two top-25 finishes this year, holds a one-shot lead over Aussie John Senden, who posted a 64. Two players are currently tied for third at 65: Y.E. Yang of South Korea and James Nitties, also of Australia.
Now to Woods, who arrived at the first tee to thunderous cheers from the gallery.
“There’s Tiger’s ball right there,” said Joe Mullins, 50, of Windsor, who’s attending the tournament with brother-in-law Chris Soulliere, 62, also of Windsor.
Woods’ tee shot was indeed grand — center of the fairway — but his second shot to the 567-yard par-five (yes, he went for the green in two) wasn’t his best. The ball just missed the bunker on the right side of the green, and landed in about four inches of fluffy grass. Woods didn’t hit his best chip, leaving himself about 22-footer for birdie. He missed the putt and settled for par.
The crowd along the first hole didn’t budge, though. How come? John Daly was playing in the group behind.
Woods came back with a bogey on No. 2.
Noon: Past Buick Open champion Tom Pernice posted the first low round of the morning -- a five-under 67 -- before Tom Byrum and Marc Leishman matched the score a short time later in the first round of the tournament at Warwick Hills.
“The greens were in absolute spectacular condition,” said Pernice, who needed just 24 putts to complete his round. “There’s going to be some good scores today. I’m sure they’ll have some six- and seven-unders. I putted well today; that was the difference.”
Pernice won the Buick in 1999 and has played in the tournament every year since.
10:30 a.m.: The 51st first Buick Open got under way just over three hours ago. The first half of the field is out on the course, with the afternoon group set to tee off at noon.
Where’s Tiger? He doesn’t start his first round until 12:54 p.m., with playing partners Jonathan Byrd and Todd Hamilton.
The early leader as of this posting is Buick Open newbie Marc Leishman, who’s six under with five holes to play. 1999 Buick Open winner Tom Pernice, who started his round on the back nine, is five under, also with five holes to go.
Anybody who has shown up early to a golf tournament knows that it’s the best time to walk the course. Same thing goes for early arrivers to the media room: There are some things you can’t see later in the day.
Well, about an hour ago, I caught up with a couple of longtime Buick Open mainstays: media center manager Jim Edgar and leader board calligrapher Mike Bergsma.
The two were chatting in the corner of the press room, where Bergsma was slowly, in his precision writing, making the turn on the giant sheets of paper: He was on the M’s
Although there has been no official confirmation that this is the last event at Warwick Hills, I asked them a few of their favorite Buick memories.
Edgar recalled the 1981 event, when legendary golfer Sam Snead returned for the first time since 1969. Snead shot 77 and withdrew after the first round but stopped by the press room and talked to reporters until everyone got the material they needed.
“He was so gracious with his time,” Edgar said.
The Buick that year also was the last for Arnold Palmer, who tied for second the first time he played (1958). He shot 77-75 and missed the cut in ’81. But that wasn’t the last time fans “heard” from Palmer. He left in his jet and “buzzed the course on his way out,” Edgar recalled with a laugh.
“He flew straight up 18,” he said.
No surprise that Bergsma’s favorite press-room memories involve his longtime pal and former Free Press golf scribe Jack Saylor, who died a few years ago.
Bergsma has been working the leader board at the Buick since 1978, and he remembers a time around then when Saylor — affectionately known as “Old Fat Fingers” by Bergsma — took command of the piano in the clubhouse after a pairings party. It wasn’t long before broadcaster Jim Brandstatter, who played football at Michigan, joined in with “his terrific Irish tenor voice,” Bergsma said.
“They were great,” he said.
Another memory: Back in the day when reporters used typewriters to write their stories, Bergsma said he’ll never forger the time when Craig Stadler came into the press room asking to borrow one.
“He wanted to write a letter to his mother,” Bergsma said. “I was never a fan of Stadler before then, but I was after that.”
source: freep.com
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