Travelers Championship: First-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR Staff CROMWELL, Conn. -- Play in the first round of the Travelers Championship was suspended for the day at 7:03 p.m. Thursday due to threatening conditions. Round One will resume with players "in position" at 7:30 a.m. Friday. Round Two is scheduled to begin on time with the first groups teeing off at 6:50 a.m. A total of 39 players have not completed Round One. • The premature halt was the second stoppage of the day. Rain moved into the area around 4:30 p.m., and play was suspended at 4:32 p.m. After a delay of one hour and 13 minutes, play resumed at 5:45 p.m.  Chris DiMarco posted his best opening-round score of the year Thursday. (Chris Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
• Chris DiMarco posted a 6-under-par 64 in the morning wave. This is DiMarco's first start here since 2002 and his eighth overall, starting in 1994. The 64 is his best first-round score in this event and matches his tournament-best, a second-round 64 in 1999. The 64 is the best score for DiMarco since he carded a 64 in the third round of the 2004 FBR Open (par-71) • Chris DiMarco has been struggling this season with a bad left shoulder for most of the year and has had a couple cortisone shots to relieve the pain. His 6-under 64 is the best of the 2007 for him on two fronts -- it is the lowest score in relation to par and the lowest score. Previously, he shot a 4-under 68 in the opening round of THE PLAYERS Championship. • Craig Perks had a hole-in-one Thursday morning, as he aced the 202-yard, par-3 eighth hole using a 6-iron. It is the 27th ace in tournament history and the first at that hole since Blaine McCallister in the opening round in 2004. Perks will receive a Rolex watch, provided by Lux Bond & Green, a Connecticut-based jewelry company, for his hole-in-one on Friday at 11:30 a.m. in the scoring area next to the clubhouse. • Hunter Mahan, who tied for 13th at last week's U. S. Open Championship, shot an 8-under-par 62 to take the first-round lead by two strokes over Chris DiMarco. This is the second time in his PGA TOUR career that Mahan has held the first-round lead. The only other time came at the 2005 John Deere Classic, where he shot an 8-under-par 63 and led J. L. Lewis by one shot. Mahan finished T7 that week. (Mahan has never held a second or third-round lead.) • Hunter Mahan's 62 is one stroke off the TPC River Highlands course record of 61, set by Kirk Triplett in the third round in 2000. Phil Mickelson (round three) and Scott Verplank (round four) both tied the course mark in 2001. • Hunter Mahan has a pair of runner-up finishes to his PGA TOUR credit. He was part of a four-way playoff at the 2004 Reno-Tahoe Open, which was won by Vaughn Taylor (Steve Allan and Scott McCarron were part of the playoff as well). Mahan also tied for second with Ryan Moore in this event last year, three shots back of champion J. J. Henry. Moore is currently at 4 under par with one hole to go. Henry shot a 2-under par 68 Thursday. • Jeff Overton made one of the strangest birdies in memory Thursday. After hitting his tee shot out-of-bounds on the 533-yard par 5, Overton hit his third shot into the fairway. From there, he used a hybrid-3 and holed out from 228 yards for a birdie 4. • Six players in the field this week also teed it up when this event was held at Wethersfield Country Club. The tournament moved to TPC River Highlands in 1984. Those players who say they "remember when" include: Tommy Armour III, Paul Azinger, Mark Calcavecchia, John Cook, Brad Faxon and Tom Lehman. • Yale graduate Bob Heintz shot a 5-under 65 Thursday morning, his best score of the year. Previously he posted a 66 in the opening round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Heintz has missed the cut in his three starts in this event (2000, 2002 and 2005). His best previous score at TPC River Highlands was a second-round 68 in 2000. • Bob Heintz matched his career-best score with his 65. This is the sixth time Heintz has posted a 65 in his PGA TOUR career and the first since a 65 in the second round of the 2005 Valero Texas Open. • Australian rookie Michael Sim also posted a 5-under 65 Thursday. He started on the back and carded eight straight pars before a bogey 5 on the 18th hole. Sim then chalked up six birdies on the front, including four in a row to close his round with a 6-under 29 and a 65. Sim is playing in just his fifth event of the year after dealing with back problems following the close of the 2006 Nationwide Tour season and beginning the 2007 PGA TOUR campaign. Sim made the cut in his first start this season (T18 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans), but missed the cut in his next three starts. • Michael Sim is the eighth player to post a sub-30 score on nine holes this year. Brandt Snedeker shot a 9-under 27 at the Buick Invitational and six others have tallied 29s this season (two 7-under 29s, four 6-under 29s). Both Frank Lickliter (round one) and Nick O'Hern (round two) shot 6-under 29s at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial last month. • Michael Sim tied the tournament record for lowest front nine score with 29 Thursday. Mike Brisky posted a 6-under 29 in 1995. Brisky finished birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie to close out the nine. Vijay Singh holds the record for the lowest back-nine score with a 7-under-par 28 in 1998. • Sweden's Carl Pettersson also posted a 5-under-par 65 in the morning wave. Pettersson, winner of two PGA TOUR events, is making his first career start in this event. Pettersson played the quartet of par 3s in 3 under Thursday. • There have been a total of five eagles so far in the opening round, including Perks' ace. The others came from Jim St. Pierre (from 141 yards out on the par-4 12th), David Toms (10-foot putt on the par-5 13th), Michael Boyd (3-foot, 3-inch putt on the par-5 13th) andKent Jones (19-foot, 9-inch putt on the par-5 13th). • Nick O'Hern posted a bogey-free 67 in the morning, and was the only player in the morning wave to go bogey-free. • Arron Oberholser (73) withdrew after the round due to a sore left elbow. Mathias Gronberg (77) withdrew after the round. Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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