WGC-CA Championship: First-Round Notebook

By John Bush, PGA TOUR Staff

DORAL, Fla. -- Geoff Ogilvy and Miguel Angel Jimenez share the first-round lead of the World Golf Championships-CA Championship after posting matching 7-under 65s Thursday. They're one stroke ahead of Stewart Cink and two clear of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Anders Hansen and Nick O'Hern.

Miguel Angel Jimenez started strongly in his first CA Championship start since 2005. (Little/WireImage)

Inside the Numbers

18-Hole Leaderboard

Player Score T1. Geoff Ogilvy 65 -7 T1. Miguel A. Jimenez 65 -7 3. Stewart Cink 66 -5 T4. Phil Mickelson 67 -5 T4. Adam Scott 67 -5 T4. Anders Hansen 67 -5 T4. Tiger Woods 67 -5 T4. Nick O'Hern 67 -5 T9. Mark Calcavecchia 68 -4 T9. Martin Kaymer 68 -4 T9. Toru Taniguchi 68 -4 T9. Ryuji Imada 68 -4 T9. Luke Donald 68 -4 T9. Andres Romero 68 -4 T9. Ross Fisher 68 -4 T9. Robert Karlsson 68 -4 T9. Gregory Havret 68 -4 T9. Jeev M. Singh 68 -4

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• Ogilvy, a three-time PGA TOUR winner, missed his first three cuts of the season but has bounced back with a tie for 33rd at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, a tie for 10th at the PODS Championship and a tie for 14th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He is making just his second start at the WGC-CA Championship, having finished tied for third, four strokes behind Tiger Woods a year ago.

• Jimenez had his only start of the PGA TOUR season at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, finishing tied for 33rd. Most recently, he claimed the 2007 UBS Hong Kong Open, the second event on the 2008 European Tour schedule. He is making his fifth start at the WGC-CA Championship (but first since 2005), with a runner-up finish in 1999 equaling his PGA TOUR career-best finish (2000 U.S. Open).

• This represents the fifth time in Ogilvy's PGA TOUR career that he has held the first-round lead, with the most recent leading to a runner-up finish at the 2006 Honda Classic. The others all came during the 2001 season, leading to a tie for third at the Touchstone Energy Tucson Open, tie for second at The Honda Classic and a missed cut at the Buick Challenge. Jimenez has never led after the first round of a TOUR event, but has held the opening-round lead 14 times on the European Tour, leading to three wins.

• In 2008, the first-round leader/co-leader has won just once in 11 stroke-play events on the PGA TOUR (K.J. Choi at the Sony Open in Hawaii). At the WGC-CA Championship, the first-round leader/co-leader has won twice (Tiger Woods in 2002 and 2006).

• Stewart Cink, who enters the week with two consecutive runner-up finishes (WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, PODS Championship), opened with a 6-under 66 and is just one shot behind Ogilvy and Jimenez.

• Martin Kaymer, the runner-up to Tiger Woods at the 2008 Dubai Desert Classic, is one of 10 players at 4-under 68. In 2007, Kaymer became the first German recipient of the European Tour's Rookie of the Year award. He has picked up where he left off the season, winning the 2008 Abu Dhabi Championship.

• Speaking of Kaymer, he is one of 25 players competing in the first WGC-CA Championship of their careers. The list is as follows: Woody Austin, Mark Brown, Jonathan Byrd, Daniel Chopra, S.S.P. Chowrasia, Ross Fisher, Peter Hanson, Gregory Havret, J.B. Holmes, Ryuji Imada, Brendan Jones, Kaymer, James Kingston, Wen-chong Liang, Hunter Mahan, Chapchai Nirat, Andres Romero, Paul Sheehan, Heath Slocum, Brandt Snedeker, Richard Sterne, Graeme Storm, D.J. Trahan, Camilo Villegas and Boo Weekley. No player has won a WGC event in his first start, except Jeff Maggert -- who won the 1999 Accenture Match Play Championship, the first-ever WGC event.

• The recent victory by Tiger Woods at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship means the world's No. 1 player is currently the defending champion of all three World Golf Championship events -- including the CA Championship which he won by two strokes over Brett Wetterich a year ago.

• Woods is seeking his seventh win at this event and his fourth in a row at a tournament he has won on six different golf courses. Only Sam Snead has more victories in a single tournament, with eight wins in Greensboro, N.C. (Wyndham Championship).

• Woods, currently tied for fourth, is well on his way to finishing inside the top 10 at the WGC-CA Championship for the ninth time in as many tries. In all, he has won 15 World Golf Championships events out of 26 previous starts. The only WGC event he didn't play was the 2001 Accenture Match Play Championship.

• Ernie Els (74) and Tiger Woods (67) are the only players in the field to have won the Ford Championship at Doral and the WGC-CA Championship. Els won the 2002 Ford Championship and the 2004 WGC-CA Championship. Woods won back-to-back Ford Championship titles in 2005-06 and has collected six WGC-CA Championship trophies. The only other past champion of the WGC-CA Championship in the field this week is Mike Weir, who opened with a 1-over 73.

• The first-round course average at the par-72 Doral Golf Resort & Spa's Blue Course was 70.899. The toughest hole on Thursday was the par-3 13th, yielding a 3.405 average. The par-4 18th hole, which ranked as the hardest hole on TOUR in 2004 and 2007, played to a 4.114 average during the opening round (sixth hardest of the day).

• A pair of Aussies recorded the only bogey-free rounds on Thursday: Geoff Ogilvy (65) and Adam Scott (67).

• With his appearance this week, Stuart Appleby has now participated in 28 career World Golf Championships events, having competed in every WGC event since the inception of the series in 1999. The eight-time PGA TOUR winner opened with a 1-over 73 and is looking to get back on track after a missed cut at last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational snapped a string of five consecutive top-10 finishes to start the season.