Ginn Championship: First-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR Staff PALM COAST, Fla. -- 64-year-old Raymond Floyd's 4-under-par 68 in the first round of the Ginn Championship Hammock Beach Resort was his best opening-round score on the Champions Tour since posting a 67 on Friday at last fall's AT&T Championship in San Antonio.  Mark O'Meara put together one of the most unusual rounds of the season. (Chris Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
• Mark O'Meara had an unusual first round. O'Meara shot 3-under 69, but didn't have a birdie on his scorecard, the first time in his professional career he's been under par without making a birdie. O'Meara made a pair of eagles (par-5 No. 2/par-5 No. 10), the sixth different player this year to make multiple eagles in a round on the Champions Tour. Just after his fellow competitor, Jay Sigel, holed a greenside bunker shot at No. 10 for an eagle, O'Meara followed by holing a sand shot of his own from the same bunker. • Keith Fergus posted the only bogey-free round of the day and his 5-under 67 gave him a share of the lead with Brad Bryant. Before today, the last time Fergus shared the first-round lead in a Champions Tour event was at the 2006 Regions Charity Classic (T11). Bryant was the solo first-round leader earlier this year at the season-opening MasterCard Championship at Hualalai (T5). • With winds gusting up to 25 mph, the Ocean Club at Hammock Beach played to a stroke average of 72.833 for Round 1, the second-highest stroke average for an opening round on the Champions Tour this year. The highest came at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am in Tampa when the par-71 TPC Tampa Bay averaged 74.500 on Friday. Just 14 players broke 70 and there were 29 sub-par rounds. The front nine at the Ocean Club (35.821) played over a stroke lower than the back nine (37.013). • The most difficult hole on Friday was the par-4 18th with an average score of 4.474. The hole yielded just three birdies (Irwin, Jacobs, Harris). • Mark McNulty, making just his second appearance of the year due to back problems, carded a 1-over 73. Before Friday, McNulty last played at the season-opening MasterCard Championship at Hualalai in late January and T15 in Hawaii. • Tom Watson hit all 14 fairways Friday. ... Keith Fergus and Ben Crenshaw both hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation...R.W. Eaks had 12 one-putts...Eduardo Romero made the longest measured putt, 50'2" for birdie at No. 12...John Jacobs hit the longest measured drive of the day, 359 yards at No. 18. • Joe Ozaki and R.W. Eaks both carded 4-under 68s. Ozaki got into the event by virtue of his top-10 finish at the AT&T Champions Classic at Valencia two weeks ago. Eaks has been nursing a sore back and almost withdrew from this event earlier in the week. Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
