So far in the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, the course is winning
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
IRVING, Texas -- It was one of those days.
You know the kind. Two-putts are awesome. Getting your ball to sit somewhere in the vicinity of your target on the green puts a smile on your face. An approach shot where the club decision doesn't change three times in a minute feels like a miracle.
And finding that one moment when you can finally take a risk? Priceless.
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Yes, Thursday at the TPC at Las Colinas was a battle -- against the whipping winds and a course that looked familiar but played nothing like the old familiar home of the EDS Byron Nelson Championship.
It was a day when players ground out their rounds and par felt like a couple under. A day when everything flapped in the blustery conditions and patience was not only a virtue, but the path to the top of the leader board.
"Yeah, I wish I would have had some,'' defending champ Scott Verplank said, drawing a laugh from a small group of reporters. "That would have been great.''
And, he said with his tongue somewhat planted in his cheek after an opening 72, it would have been pretty nice if D.A. Weibring had pushed back the tweaks he did on the course.
"I've been playing this golf course for 20 years, so I pretty much have seen every pin placement and hit darn near every shot you can hit out here, and now all of a sudden I'm back starting from zero on a lot of that stuff. You know, I wish they would have waited a few more years,'' he said drawing another laugh.
"Like I said, I had 20 years of pretty much knowing how to play the other one, and now it's like going back to a new course, and generally, at my stage of my career and my age, I usually don't go to new golf courses much anymore. It takes a few years to get to know how to play them.''
This most certainly isn't the course the players left a year ago -- the one with brown greens and a damaged reputation. This was a course where even Verplank is forced to relearn where his approach shots need to go -- on more undulating greens with some slopes that aren't visible.
Add in wind gusts around 33 mph and... par flew up to just under 72.5, the leaders -- Mathew Goggin, Ryan Moore and Eric Axley -- were relieved with opening 67s and late-entry Adam Scott was all smiles when he birdied 18 to join a group at 68.
"If you hit it OK, it's not too bad because you're hitting a fair amount of greens,'' Scott said. "It can be a battle if you're getting in awkward positions around the greens and all you feel like you're doing is scrambling.
"I think it's a battle anyway, even if you're hitting it well, because you've got to test your patience then. I spent a lot of the day two putting. You've just got to wait for your opportunity to come along.''
The toughest stretch of holes was on the back nine -- 14 through 18 to be specific. Four of them ranked in the top five hardest holes, with 15 and 18 finishing one-two on that list. Only 16, missed the list.
"Those are just,'' Moore said, "great golf holes."
As brutal, Parnevik said, as he's seen them playing here.
"I mean, 14, that hole, you just take par and go,'' said Parnevik, who won here in 2000. "And 15, I think I had a 5 wood into that green. And 16 being the par 5 was also really tough. I can't remember the last time I hit 4 iron into 17 and 18.
"It was pretty tough out there. "
Especially on those greens.
"I backed off a lot of putts and a lot of shots, but you have to,'' said Johnson Wagner, who won the Shell Houston Open earlier this month. "You have to know what it's doing and be ready for it.
"...I had a putt over on (No.) 1, my 10th hole, and just probably blew it a cup outside the hole,'' Wagner said.
And on approaches. Parnevik shook his head.
"When you get gusts between 20 and 40 miles per hour and a lot of it sidewind, you've really got to put the right spin on the ball, which is tough out there,'' he said. "Which I managed to do today luckily. ''
Yes, luck did play a part. Which hole, which gust. Scott found himself in the right place at the right time and nearly drove the green at the 323-yard par-4. He settled for birdie.
And then there was Axley, who won the Valero Texas Open on a windy day in 2006 and ran off four consecutive birdies on the front nine -- the fourth through the seventh -- with good iron shots. The start gave him a bit of breathing room on what was to come.
And the course? So far, it's the winner.
"Like I said, it's going to take a little bit of getting used to,'' said Verplank, who has four other top 10s in addition to his win here. "But guys are going to play good, and somebody is going to win and some other guys are going to play pretty good. So it's there.
"I don't think it was as hard as I made it, but with the wind blowing it's a little bit more difficult than the other setup.''
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