Travelers Championship: First-Round Notebook
By Doug Milne, PGA TOUR Staff
CROMWELL, Conn. -- Johnson Wagner, Brian Davis, Brad Adamonis and Steve Lowery are tied for the lead after each shot 6-under-par 64 at the opening round of the Travelers Championship on Thursday.
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• The 64 by Steve Lowery, who recorded his third PGA TOUR victory earlier this year with a playoff-win over Vijay Singh at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, is his best score at the Travelers Championship in 39 career rounds dating back to 1988. Lowery, who is currently 27th in the 2008 FedExCup standings, recorded his only other top-10 finish of the 2008 season at the Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley.
• The opening-round 64 is Steve Lowery's lowest first-round score since the 2005 Funai Classic at Walt Disney World Resort. It marks the 18th time that the 47 year-old has held or shared the first-round lead in his PGA TOUR career, the last of which was the 2006 EDS Bryon Nelson Championship. He has gone on to victory three times over the course of those events.
• Prior to Lowery's win at Pebble Beach, he was playing 2008 on a Minor Medical Extension after suffering a wrist injury in 2007. He entered the season with eight starts in which to earn $282,558, which would couple with his 2007 earnings of $502,622 to equal No. 125 on the 2007 money list.
• Brian Davis has never missed a cut at the Travelers Championship in three previous appearances (2005-tied for 54th, 2006-tied for 16th, 2007-tied for 43rd). The 64 matches Davis' lowest score of the year with a second-round 64 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and is his lowest first-round score since a 64 at the 2005 Ford Championship at Doral.
• Davis held the 36-hole lead earlier this year at the Honda Classic before eventually finishing the tournament four strokes behind Ernie Els. His tie for seventh finish stands as the only top-10 finish of the 2008 season. Davis had a career-high three top-10 finishes in 2007 and topped $1 million in earnings for a season for the first time in his career.
• Johnson Wagner, winner of the 2008 Shell Houston Open, nearly aced the 296-yard par 4 15th hole on Thursday, hitting his tee shot to approximately two feet. Wagner's approaches were good all day as he hit 17 of 18 greens for round one. He moved to Garrison, N.Y, when he was 14 years old and attended the Travelers Championship as a spectator in 1994, has played well in first rounds this year with a 63 on the opening day of the Shell Houston Open and another 63 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. Wagner finished No. 2 on the 2006 Nationwide Tour money list. As an amateur, he won the 2001 Metropolitan Open at Bethpage Black.
• Brad Adamonis, 35 year-old-rookie from Cumberland, Rhode Island, shot the lowest round of his PGA TOUR career with a 6-under-par 64. Adamonis, who finished No. 33 on the Nationwide Tour money list after winning an 8-hole sudden death playoff at the WNB Golf Classic. He made the PGA TOUR after finishing tied for ninth at the 2007 PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament. This is the first time that he has held or shared the lead after the completion of any round on the PGA TOUR. His previous best standing was second following round one of this year's Buick Invitational and the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
• The first-round scoring average of 68.853 is the lowest first-round scoring average since the tournament began keeping track in 1983. The previous low of 69.513 was recorded in 1999. There are 118 players who finished the first round at par or better.
• Last year, the par-4 fourth hole ranked as the toughest for the week. In fact, with a scoring average of 4.387, it ranked as the 28th-toughest hole on the PGA TOUR last year. All week, the fourth hole gave up just 30 birdies, but claimed 155 bogeys and 27 double bogeys. Thru the opening round this year, the fourth hole has already surrendered 15 birdies. The 462-yard par-4 10th hole played as the most difficult on Thursday, playing to a 4.205 average score.
• Tim Herron improved his scoring average to 68.73 in 41 career rounds at the Travelers Championship with a first-round 66. Herron finished as the runner-up in 2004 and has five top-20 finishes here in 11 tournaments. Herron is making an attempt at his first top-10 finish of the season after coming close with a tie for 13th at the Stanford St. Jude Championship.
• Ken Duke shot an opening-round 5-under-par 65. The 65 is one-stroke off his career low round (64) on the PGA TOUR. This is Duke's second time playing at the Travelers Championship. He played at the 2004 event, shooting a first-round 68 en route to a tie for 49th.
• Ken Duke was the 2006 Nationwide Tour leading money winner and Player of the Year. In a tie for second place, the 39-year-old matched his best career standing after the first round. He was also second after round one at the 2004 HP Classic of New Orleans where he went on to finish 12th for the event. Duke's best finish this season was a tie for sixth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.
• Lucas Glover also shot a 5-under-par 65, his first round in the 60s at this event in seven rounds. Glover has missed the cut in his three previous starts at the Travelers Championship. Glover started the day with a bogey on the 10th hole (his first hole of the day), but then recorded four birdies and an eagle over his next eight holes for a 5-under-par 30 on his opening nine holes.
• Playing as a sponsor exemption this week, amateur Michael H. Thompson, shot an opening round 5-under-par 65. Thompson finished as the low amateur at last week's U.S. Open. He recently finished up his senior season at the University of Alabama. He originally went to Tulane, but was forced to transfer to Alabama after Tulane disband their program in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He was a finalist in the 2007 U.S. Amateur, getting beat by Colt Knost 2 and 1. Thompson plans to turn professional after the Palmer Cup June 26-27 in Glasgow Golf Club.
• Fairfield, Conn., native and winner of the 2006 Travelers Championship, J.J. Henry made the cut as an amateur at the Travelers Championship in 1998 when he finished T56. Brian Harman was the last player to make the cut as an amateur in 2004. Harman finished tied for 71st.
• Hartford native Jim Grant recorded the best finish in tournament history by an amateur by finishing tied for second at the 1964 event.
• Webb Simpson, also a sponsor exemption this week and playing in his second PGA TOUR event as a professional, finished the day at 3 under par. In his only other PGA TOUR event as a professional, he finished tied for 64th at Stanford St. Jude Championship.
• J.J. Henry shot a bogey-free opening-round 4-under-par 66 and is two strokes off the lead. It is Henry's first bogey-free round since the opening round of this year's Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. Henry has made six consecutive cuts at this event. He is in search of his first top-10 finish of the 2008 season.
• Other notables on the leaderboard who are also searching for their first top-10 finish of the season are Chris DiMarco (-4) and David Toms (-3).
• DiMarco's opening-round 66 is his lowest first-round score of 2008 and also his lowest opening round since shooting a 64 at last year's Travelers Championship. DiMarco is looking for his first top-10 of the 2008 season and his first since last year's World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. The 39-year-old who was born in Huntington, N.Y., is playing for the ninth time at the Travelers Championship and is trying to make his seventh consecutive cut at this event. His best finish at the Travelers Championship is a tie for third in 2001, when he shot an opening-round 65.
• David Toms shot an opening-round 3-under-par 67. Toms had it to 6 under par, but his tee shot at the par-3 16th hole found the water and resulted in a triple bogey. Playing in his 14th event of the 2008 season, David Toms is also in search of his first top-10 finish. It is the longest that the Louisiana State University graduate has gone without a top-10 finish to start a season since 1997 where he finished tied for fifth at the Bellsouth Classic, his 14th event of the 1997 season. Toms, who finished tied for sixth at last year's Travelers Championship after being tied for the second-round lead, has made 10 of 13 cuts this season including nine consecutive cuts.
• Notah Begay III, who won this event in 2000, shot an opening-round 4-under-par 66 and is two off the lead. It is Begay's first round in the 60s since the first round of last year's Reno-Tahoe Open and his second round in the 60s since the 2006 Valero Texas Open. Begay is playing for the third time on the PGA TOUR this season and is looking to make his first cut of the year.
• The last 12 winners of the Travelers Championship have been from the United States dating back to Greg Norman's victory in 1995. ... The first-round leader has gone on to win five of 26 stroke-play events this year on the PGA TOUR.
• Eleven players finished Thursday with zero bogeys on their scorecard: Michael Thompson, Justin Rose, John Huston, Peter Karmis, Chris DiMarco, Brian Bateman, Stewart Cink, J.J. Henry, Kevin Sutherland, Jason Day and Webb Simpson.
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