Zurich Classic of New Orleans: First-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR staff AVONDALE, La. -- Rookie Kyle Reifers (RY-fers) established a new course record at the TPC Louisiana with his 8-under-par 64 Thursday. Reifers broke the previous mark of 65 set by Chris DiMarco and Arjun Atwal during the first round in 2005. Reifers also owns the Black Creek Club course record in Chattanooga, Tenn., site of the Chattanooga Classic, where he posted a final-round 61 last year and went on to win the Nationwide Tour event in a playoff.  Mark Calcavecchia is off to his best start ever in New Orleans. (Al Messerschmidt/WireImage)
• Reifers's 64 is not a tournament-record score. That belongs to Paul Stankowski, who posted an 11-under-par 61 in the opening round of the 2001 event at English Turn. • Kyle Reifers' two-stroke lead is the largest 18-hole lead since Dan Forsman led by two after the initial round in 2002. • Kyle Reifers hit 11 of 14 fairways, 17 of 18 greens in regulation and had 27 putts en route to his 64 Thursday. Reifers missed the cut in his first three starts this year and has made the cut in his past three. He finished 71st at The Honda Classic, T12 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard and T49 at the Shell Houston Open. In 19 previous rounds, Reifers had posted sub-70 scores only twice (68, round two of the Arnold Palmer Invitational; 67, round one of the Shell Houston Open). • PODS Championship winner Mark Calcavecchia is making his 10th start in this event. Calcavecchia's 6-under-par 66 is his lowest score of the 27 total rounds he has now posted in New Orleans. His previous best was 67, which he shot three times, including the second round last year. Calcavecchia did not play this event in 2005 when it was last contested at TPC Louisiana. When Calcavecchia won in Tampa in early March, he opened with a 4-over-par 75. • Tim Petrovic is one of two "defending champions" this week. Petrovic won the 2005 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the last time it was held here at TPC Louisiana. Petrovic's 67 matches his best round of the 2007 season -- a 4-under 67 in the opening round of the FBR Open. In 10 starts this year, Petrovic has made five cuts and his best finish was T23 at the FBR Open. The last time Petrovic was 5-under par for a single round was in the final round of the 2006 FUNAI Classic at the WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort. • The other "defending champion" -- 2006 winner Chris Couch (winner at English Turn CC) shot an even-par 72. Couch was 3 over through four holes and turned at 3-over 39. He birdied Nos. 11, 13 and 15 to finish with a 33 on the back. • Last week's Verizon Heritage winner, Boo Weekley, struggled to a 5-over 77 Thursday. Weekley had only one birdie on the round. He hit 9 of 14 fairways, 9 of 18 greens in regulation and had 30 total putts. In winning last week at Hilton Head, S.C., Weekley needed only 97 putts for 72 holes -- an average of 24.25 per day. • Second-year pro Jason Schultz matched his best round of the year with a 5-under-par 67 (opening round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am). Schultz, who won the Nationwide Tour's Chattanooga Classic the year before Kyle Reifers won it, was close to matching his career-best round (66) but bogeyed the 16th and 17th holes after a birdie at No. 15 pushed him to 7-under par. with the 66. • Veteran Joey Sindelar, making his 15th start in this event, posted the second-lowest score in his Zurich Classic of New Orleans history. Sindelar's 68 today was topped only by a final round 66 in 2004. In his 14 previous starts here, Sindelar made only six cuts and his only top-25 finish is a T14 in 1992. • Two-time champion Carlos Franco posted a 4-under-par 68 Thursday, his first sub-70 score of the year. Franco has made only two starts on the PGA TOUR this year and missed the cut in both the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (70-77-81) and the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun (74-70). Franco, the last back-to-back winner of this event (1999, 2000), tied for 15th last year. After he left New Orleans last year, Franco made only five cuts in his last 18 starts and his best effort was a T44 at the Deutsche Bank Championship. He wound up No. 154 on the money list, the first time he'd been outside the top-125 since he first joined the PGA TOUR in 1999. • Lefty B. J. Staten hit double figures Thursday with a 6-over-par 10 on the par-4 6th hole. Staten's tee shot on the 488-yard dogleg left found the water down the left side. Staten then hit two more shots into the water after taking a penalty stroke and eventually hit the green with his 8th shot and then two-putted for his 10. Staten shot an 81 in the first round. • Tripp Isenhour withdrew prior to the start of the round and was replaced in the field by Jay Delsing.
• Ryan Moore equaled the best birdie streak on the PGA TOUR this year with his run of five in a row. Moore made five straight birdies starting at No. 13. He is the 12th player to have five consecutive birdies this season and the first since Johnson Wagner did it in the third round of the Shell Houston Open three weeks ago. • The last time a first-round leader went on to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans was 1992, when Chip Beck shot a 5-under 67 and was tied with Seve Ballesteros, Brad Bryant and Jay Haas after 18 holes. Beck went on to defeat Greg Norman by a stroke. • There were a total of 5 eagles made during Thursday's opening round, and four of them came from off the green. • At the par-5, 7th hole: Rocco Mediate holed out from 78 yards for his eagle-3. Chris DiMarco chipped in from 60 feet, 5 inches. Michael Allen took the more conventional route with an eagle putt from 30 feet, 4 inches. • At the par-4, 10th hole, Briny Baird holed his second shot from 129 yards for a two. • At the par-5, 11th hole, Ryan Palmer pitched in from 90 feet away for his three. |
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