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| November 18, 2005 | Friday | Shawwal 15, 1426 |
Golf: Duval outshines Tiger Woods
MIYAZAKI (Japan) Nov 17: David Duval led by one stroke over reigning champ Tiger Woods on the first day of Japan’s richest golf tournament, firing a six-under-par 64 on Thursday.
The struggling Duval, a former world number one who has made the cut at only one PGA event this year, reeled off four straight birdies at one point, finishing with a birdie in one of his best tournament rounds in years.
The 34-year-old won the British Open and Dunlop Phoenix in 2001, but has not been in the winner’s circle since.
Woods, the current world number one who earned over $10.6 million on the PGA tour this year, was hurt by a bogey on the second hole but still remained just off the pace.
The American said he was happy with his five-under-par performance, including a recovery for par from the woods on the par four 13th.
Woods said watching his former World Cup partner Duval’s struggle with health and performance has been difficult over the last few years.
Duval said despite his strong performance on Thursday he was still not healthy.
American Jim Furyk and Japanese pros Shinichi Yokota and Tomohiro Kondo each were two shots back at 67 in the tournament held at Japan’s Phoenix Country Club on the southern island of Kyushu.
The Dunlop Phoenix has 200 million yen ($1.7 million) in prize money, helping to draw Japan’s strongest international field of the season.
Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie shot a one-over-par 71, while New Zealand’s U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell was two-over -par.
Leading first round scores:
64 - David Duval
65 - Tiger Woods
67 - Tomohiro Kondo, Jim Furyk, Shinichi Yokota
68 - Kaname Yokoo, Hidemichi Tanaka, Mamo Osanai, Mitsuhiro Tateyama, Tetsuji Hiratsuka
69 - Jong-Duck Kim, Daniel Chopra, Tommy Nakajima, Hideto Tanihara, Chawalit Plaphol, Prayad Marksaeng, Thammanoon Srirot
70 - Paul Sheehan, Gwang-Soo Choi, Chris Campbell, S.K. Ho
71 - Steve Conran, Bubba Watson, Colin Montgomerie, Keng-Chi Lin)
72 - David Smail, Michael Campbell, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Wen-Chong Liang
73 - Robert Allenby
74 - Christian Pena, John Rollins, Peter Lawrie, Dinesh Chand
75 - Scott Laycock
76 - Thomas Bjorn, Wei-Tze Yeh.
England in front
VILAMOURA (Portugal): The England duo of David Howell and Luke Donald underlined why they were pre-tournament favourites when they opened with a stunning 13-under 59 to top the leaderboard on the first day of the WGC World Cup here on Thursday.
Howell and Donald carded 11 birdies and an eagle on the Arnold Palmer designed Victoria Golf Club to lead Australia and India by one shot and two ahead of Sweden and Wales.
At one point it looked that Howell and Donald were going to score in the mid 50’s as they reached turn nine-under par and then promptly birdied the 10th on the walk home.
But then the birdie blitz ground to a halt before they picked up three more over the closing three holes.
The Indian team of Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa carded 10 birdies an an eagle on the way to their 12-under 60.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia and Miguel Angel Jiminez were dissapointed with their opening 10-under.
The American duo of Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson could only manage a seven-under for the day but refuse to count themselves out of it.—AFP
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