First round: Overton takes control in brutal conditions
VERONA, N.Y. (AP) -- The sky cleared just in time for Jeff Overton.
Teeing off on what became a bright late afternoon after a cold, soggy morning, Overton shot a 5-under 67 on Thursday to take the first-round lead at the Turning Stone Resort Championship, the second stop on the PGA TOUR's Fall Series.
Overton, who started at the 10th hole, made three birdies on the front side to take a one-shot lead over Michael Allen and Steve Allan.
Tag Ridings, Carlos Franco, and Jason Day were tied for fourth at 69. Another shot back were Briny Baird, Bo Van Pelt, Kent Jones, Mark Hensby, Tommy Gainey, Sterling Scott, Paul Claxton and Troy Matteson, who had a bogey-free round.
Defending Turning Stone champ Steve Flesch, a black knit cap pulled tightly over his ears in brisk conditions that never rose much above 50 degrees, shot a 74.
The inaugural Turning Stone Championship last September was played under near ideal conditions with little wind and temperatures in the 80s. At the start of play Thursday, it was 48 degrees with intermittent rain and a steady 20 mph wind, a day to watch Canada geese fly south, not little white balls soaring where they weren't meant to go. Only 27 players broke par.
"It can tire you out, and it'll get you towards the end of the round," said Ridings, who teed off in early morning. "I think it helps more than anything starting the round. You get rid of jitters and you get rid of wayward thoughts because you have to concentrate on that stuff."
When the sun broke through, it made playing more bearable.
"My last six holes, it definitely played a little bit easier," said the 25-year-old Overton. "The morning was so nasty. The wind was just howling."
Allen, who finished second to Flesch last year, finished his round wearing a golf shirt and was smiling despite having left 100-degree weather at his Arizona home to come to upstate New York.
The conditions made the 7,482-yard Atunyote Golf Club course play much longer and promised to make it difficult to match Flesch's winning total of 18 under in 2007. "It's totally different," Allen said. "It's playing a lot more difficult."
The adverse conditions didn't prevent some great shots, though. Day holed out from 117 yards for eagle at the par-4 14th hole, Franco chipped in from 20 feet for eagle at the par-5 fifth hole and also drained a 70-foot birdie putt at the par-3 sixth hole, and Van Pelt hit a hybrid from 235 yards to 15 feet and also made eagle at No. 5.
"Wow, this is tough talking because I can't believe I shot 3 under," said the 43-year-old Franco, who birdied three of the four par 3s. "The day's conditions are really, really difficult. Every shot is difficult. It's cold and your hands, you lose the feeling, and the wind, it didn't stop, then it rain and stop and rain and stop. That's very difficult to focus."
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| Thursday's Best |
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The par-5, 550-yard fifth was the easiest with a Thursday scoring average of 4.695.
The par-4, 439-yard 13th was the toughest with a Thursday scoring average of 4.511.
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Jason Day's incredible slam-dunk hole-out for an eagle-2 at the par-4 14th hole. The TOUR rookie from Australia shot a 3-under 69. 
Jeff Overton shot a 5-under 67, which was Thursday's best score on a cold and windy opening day at the Turning Stone Resort. | QUOTE OF THE DAY | ||
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FAXON RETURNS AFTER UNWANTED HIATUS
By Bruce Berlet, Special to PGATOUR.COM
VERONA, N.Y. -- Seeing his breath on the practice range at 7:15 a.m. before his first PGA TOUR round in 13 1/2 months wasn't Brad Faxon's idea of a good time.
Even for someone accustomed to nasty weather while growing up on the banks of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island.
"I don't think anyone had this in mind," Faxon said, a wry smile alluding to driving rain and wind chills in the low 40s that reminded players of Royal Birkdale and the British Open.
Shooting 4-over-par 76 in the first round of the Turning Stone Resort Championship, second leg of the Fall Series, didn't exactly have Faxon warming his body with cartwheels Thursday. But completing 18 holes at Atunyote Golf Club did bring some sense of satisfaction for the eight-time PGA TOUR winner.
Getting an extended opportunity to enjoy life at home with his wife and children was a rare treat, but competition and hanging out with his buddies has been a Faxon staple on the PGA TOUR for a quarter of a century. That ended Aug. 17, 2007, when he missed the cut in the Wyndham Championship, setting off a lengthy sabbatical because of foot and knee surgeries.
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INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
XM Satellite Radio announcer Brett Wright offers these observations from Thursday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
In 2002, a young country boy from Milton, Fla., named Boo Weekly hit the seen on the PGA TOUR and became a media darling after gaining his TOUR card... Remember the camouflage pants and wonderful homespun quotes? Boo only made six cuts that year and finished that season 200 on the money list with only $90,000 and some change. It took Boo a little while on TOUR to get comfortable and feel like he belonged before the big breakout year of 2006 when he won well over a million dollars.
This year a 34-year-old country boy from Hartsville, S.C., got his TOUR card. His name is Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey.
Tommy was in Big Break IV on GOLF CHANNEL and won Big Break Reunion. He has flair. He has an aw-shucks attitude that is disarming. He speaks with a country twang and cadence. He has an unorthodox swing. He also has major game and the ability to get the ball in the hole!
I got to know Tommy when he was barnstorming the now defunct U.S. Pro Golf Tour -- a mini tour that was paying impressive purses for a spell in 2005. I was part of the television broadcast team with PGA TOUR member Joe Inman, and Shanon Polito, and we handed Tommy a $50,000 check for winning the season ending tournament. Tommy beat a lot of great players on that tour and played with reckless abandon.
Tommy shot 71 today in round 1 at the Turning Stone Resort Championship. He has had a tough first year on TOUR, with only three made cuts this year and finds himself outside the top 200 with only a handful of events left to play. But Tommy is starting to feel comfortable out here on TOUR.
The learning curve is difficult; knowing where to stay, what clubs to play, and what to say. He is becoming more patient with his shot selection, and he believes again he can play! Watch for Two Gloves to put on a show this week. What a story it would be if we were watching Gainey as the Ryder Cup MVP in a few years!
| What a difference a year makes... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How Thursday's first round compared to the first round in last year's event at Turning Stone | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TURNING STONE CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST-ROUND NOTEBOOK
By Joe Chemycz, PGA TOUR Staff
• Jeff Overton fired a 5-under 67 to take the first-day lead by one stroke over Steve Allan and Michael Allen. It's only the second time in his PGA TOUR career that Overton has held/shared the first-round lead. The other time at the 2008 Legends Reno-Tahoe Open, where he carded a 7-under 65 and led by two strokes. Overton added rounds of 75-75-70 and tied for 37th place.
• Thursday's weather, marked by showers and temperatures in the 50s, was in stark contrast to last year's opening round, which saw sunny skies and an afternoon high of 78 degrees.
• Dudley Hart withdrew prior to the start of the first round and was replaced in the field by Robert Gamez.
• Mark Calcavecchia withdrew during the round due to an injury (knee), while John Mallinger withdrew following the opening round.
| 5 | The number of eagles made in the first round of the Turning Stone Championship. |
| 4 | The number of those eagles that were made on the par-5 fifth hole, which played as the easiest on Thursday. |
| 27 | The number of players who broke par in the first round. |
• Australian Steve Allan fired a 4-under 68 this morning to take the clubhouse lead. Allan remained at the top until Jeff Overton posted a 5-under 67 several hours later. Had it held up, it would have marked the first 18-hole lead in a PGA TOUR event for Allan, who is 16 days shy of his 35th birthday. The Australian hit only 7 of 14 fairways but needed only 28 putts for his five-birdie, one-bogey effort.
• The first-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win eight of 41 stroke-play events on the 2008 PGA TOUR, including most recently Camilo Villegas at the BMW Championship.
• Veteran Brad Faxon is making his first start in nearly 14 months. The eight-time PGA TOUR winner underwent knee surgery to repair ACL damage in December and has not played on TOUR since last year's Wyndham Championship (Aug. 17/69-72-MC). Faxon fired a 4-over-par 76 in Thursday's opening round. Faxon ran off nine consecutive pars on the front nine but ran into trouble with five bogeys on the first six holes of the back nine.
• Champions Tour member Joey Sindelar of Horseheads, N.Y., posted a 5-over 77 in the opening round Thursday. Sindelar has made the cut in one of four PGA TOUR starts this year but has not played since the Puerto Rico Open in late March. Sindelar is currently No. 25 on the Champions Tour money list with 12 top-25 finishes in his 15 starts, including a tie for third at the Senior PGA Championship.
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THINGS TO WATCH ON FRIDAY
1. Another battle with the elements. Friday's weather in Verona, N.Y., calls for much of the same as what players experienced on Thursday -- cold, wind and rain, with the skies clearing in the afternoon. As we saw in the opening round, there aren't a whole lot of low rounds out there for the taking, so players will need to make the most of what they can get.
2. Can Jason Day keep the momentum going? The much heralded TOUR rookie from Australia has battled through injuries in his first season, but after a 3-under 69 on Thursday, he has a lot to be happy about. He has two top-10 finishes in 2008, can he set up the chance for a third on Friday?
3. Michael Allen. He's 49 years old and still ever the competitor on the PGA TOUR. His 4-under 68 on Thursday was impressive to say the least. Can he carry that play into Friday and the weekend and perhaps notch his first TOUR victory?
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