|
|
| March 30, 2002 | Saturday | Muharram 15, 1423 |
Carter fires 65 to grab early lead
HOUSTON (Texas), March 29: US PGA Tour veteran Jim Carter took advantage of calm conditions early on to fire a seven-under-par 65 and take the first-round lead at the $4 million Houston Open at The Woodlands Thursday.
Carter’s lead withstood numerous challenges, the best coming from Mexican Esteban Toledo, who posted a six-under-par 66. Vijay Singh of Fiji, Scott Verplank, Chris Riley, JP Hayes, Brian Bateman and Jay Haas shared third place on 67.
Seven more players were on 68, including Zimbabwe’s Nick Price and former US Masters champion Fred Couples. There were a total of 23 competitors within four shots of the lead.
Carter, 40, from Scottsdale, Arizona, started his round on the back nine just before 0800 and went out in five-under 31. His bogey-free round included two more birdies on the front nine and just 24 putts in total.
Of his seven birdie putts, only one was longer than eight feet. “It was just a good, solid round,” Carter said.
“I didn’t seem to do anything stupid, I didn’t seem to do anything spectacular. Hopefully I can just build on this and keep this momentum going for three days.
“I’ve been playing really great golf,” Carter said. “Everything seems to be in order. I’ve made a few mistakes. Seems like each round I’ve had a couple of, like, ‘Man, I shouldn’t have done that’.
“I’ve just kind of inserted those into my round. I didn’t do that today, and hopefully I’m done doing that for the year.”
Carter has only one win in 352 US PGA Tour starts, at the 2000 Tucson Open.
His putting display was down to his excellent approach shots, Carter said.
“I was getting really good with my yardages today,” he said. “Had a nice line, nice distance, gave myself a lot of opportunities.
“Actually, one of my better holes was the fourth hole, when I drove it in the rough and I had to lay up short of the pond and hit a wedge up there maybe eight or nine feet behind the hole and made that to save my par. Those are as important or more important than the birdies during your round.”
Toledo, 39, is seeking to become the eighth first-time winner on the tour this season. In one of the day’s final groups, he went out in three-under 33, then birdied three of the last six holes to climb to within a stroke of the lead.
The Mexican joined the US Tour in 1994 but has yet to win. He did, though, finish second at the 2000 BC Open.
Fijian Singh also began his round on the back nine and made a sizzling start with six birdies and one bogey en route to an outward 31. He then reeled off nine straight pars on the inward half.
“I thought I was going to keep going, but I don’t know what happened,” Singh said. “I hit the ball pretty good even on the front nine for the first five holes and then I kind of scraped around the last three.”
Last week, Singh missed the cut in The Players Championship for the first time in his career.
New Zealander Craig Perks, the surprise winner of last week’s TPC, could only manage a two-over-par 74. Defending champion Hal Sutton shot a 72.
First round scores:
65 Jim Carter
66 Esteban Toledo (Mexico)
67 Chris Riley, Vijay Singh (Fiji), JP Hayes, Brian Bateman, Scott Verplank, Jay Haas
68 JL Lewis, Shigeki Maruyama (Japan), Shingo Katayama (Japan), Bob Burns, Robert Allenby (Australia), Nick Price (Zimbabwe), Fred Couples
69 Chris DiMarco, David Toms, Andrew Magee, Greg Chalmers (Australia), Darren Clarke (Britain), Rory Sabbatini (South Africa), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), Chad Campbell
Other international players:
70 Frank Nobilo (New Zealand), Greg Norman (Australia), Ian Leggatt (Canada), Rod Pampling (Australia)
71 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain), Tatsuaki Nakamura (Japan), Stephen Ames (Canada), Geoff Ogilvy (Australia), Luke Donald (Britain)
72 Phil Tataurangi (New Zealand), Paul Gow (Australia), KJ Choi (South Korea), Grant Waite (New Zealand), John Senden (Australia), Colin Montgomerie (Britain), Adam Scott (Australia)
73 Brian Watts (Canada), Michael Campbell (New Zealand), Hidemichi Tanaka (Japan), Fulton Allem (South Africa)
74 Craig Parry (Australia), Carlos Franco (Paraguay), Steve Elkington (Australia), Craig Perks (New Zealand)
75 Michael Long (New Zealand)
76 David Frost (South Africa)
77 Kaname Yokoo (Japan), Thomas Bjorn (Denmark).—Reuters
|
|
