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| March 25, 2006 | Saturday | Safar 24, 1427 |
Furyk and Love share first round lead
PONTE VEDRA BEACH (Florida), March 24: Jim Furyk and fellow American Davis Love made the most of ideal early conditions to seize the lead after the first round of the Players Championship.
On a day when the morning starters had a clear advantage, Love and Furyk both carded seven-under 65s at the Sawgrass TPC.
They led Australian Robert Allenby, Germany’s Bernhard Langer and Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez by two shots, with Fiji’s Vijay Singh among a large group three behind, thanks to a late eagle.
Tiger Woods shot 72, shaking off any after effects from a cross-country trip on the eve of the tournament to visit his ailing father in California.
Love, a two-time winner here, has an obvious affinity with the course, and was the first to admit he was lucky to have an early tee time
Love won here three years ago in one of the best performances of his career, but he hasn’t won on tour in nearly two years, although he had two runner-up finishes last year and another just four weeks ago at the Match Play Championship.
He was referring to a periodic back problem that has hampered him for years, and also to the family tragedy of nearly three years ago, when his brother-in-law committed suicide.
Furyk, meanwhile, started slowly with seven straight pars, before reeling off seven birdies in the final 11 holes to post his best score ever at the TPC.
Even though Furyk lives nearby, and has been among’s the world’s top 10 for several years, his record here is average. His best finish was a tie for fourth in 2003.
Allenby had perhaps the day’s best round, given he was battling abdominal cramps that sometimes forced him to wait to hit his shots
Langer and Jimenez were best of the afternoon starters, coping with a little more wind and a period of rain, although conditions were still not too exacting on a day when the field average was 72.2.
Langer credited a new putter, which he used just 24 times.
Scores:
65 - Jim Furyk, Davis Love
67 - Robert Allenby, Bernhard Langer, Miguel Angel Jimenez
68 - Arron Oberholser, Ben Crane, Jose Maria Olazabal, John Rollins, Vijay Singh, Bo Van Pelt
69 - Joe Durant, Rocco Mediate, Steve Flesch, Olin Browne, Retief Goosen, Mark Calcavecchia, Thomas Bjorn, Billy Andrade, Fredrik Jacobson,, KJ Choi, Fred Couples, Henrik Stenson
70 - Brian Davis, Sergio Garcia, Daniel Chopra, Craig Parry, Adam Scott, Shingo Katayama, Lee Westwood
71 - Mark Hensby, David Howell, Greg Owen, Peter Lonard, Stephen Ames, Mike Weir, Carlos Franco, Carl Pettersson, Nick O’Hern
72 - Stephen Leaney, Ian Poulter, Jesper Parnevik, Michael Campbell, Nick Price, Rory Sabbatini, Colin Montgomerie, Ernie Els, Tiger Woods, Nathan Green, Angel Cabrera, Richard S. Johnson
73 - Ryuji Imada, Stuart Appleby, John Senden, Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald
74 - Camilo Villegas
75 - Hidemichi Tanaka
76 - Nick Faldo, Arjun Atwal
77 - Tim Clark, Aaron Baddeley, Paul McGinley
78 - Geoff Ogilvy, Shigeki Maruyama, Justin Rose
79 - Craig Perks.—AFP
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