No Playoff beard, no problem -- Weir blitzes TPC Boston

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NORTON, Mass. -- When his 10-year-old and 8-year-old daughters didn't want to kiss their daddy, Mike Weir knew the beard had to go. He lathered up and bravely let the girls take the first swipes with the razor, too.

And even without what had become known as Weir's "Playoff beard" -- after the one he sported in that PSA for the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup -- Weir managed to seize the lead in the Deutsche Bank Championship with a 10-under 61 at TPC Boston on Friday.

The round was Weir's lowest aggregate total on TOUR and tied the 62 he shot at Doral in 2001 for the lowest in terms of strokes under par. He owns a three-stroke lead over Vijay Singh, John Merrick, Briny Baird and Heath Slocum on a day when TPC Boston was being particularly generous.

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Mike Weir smiles after narrowly missing out on an 11-under 60 on Friday.

Mike Weir

Through 18 holes

STATS Rnd1 TOT RANK EAGLES -- 0 N/A BIRDIES 10 10 1 PARS 8 8 T108 BOGEYS -- 0 N/A DOUBLE BOGEYS -- 0 N/A OTHER -- 0 N/A DRIVING ACCURACY 57 57.1 T69 DRIVING DISTANCE 298.5 298.5 45 PUTTS PER ROUND 21 21.0 1 PUTTS PER GIR 1.231 1.231 1 GREENS IN REG 72 72.2 T53 SAND SAVES 100 100.0 T1

Not to mention, Weir wasn't to be denied when he got to the green. He used just 21 putts -- well below his average of 28.85 -- and one-putted every green on the back nine. His birdies came from 16, 17, 11, 11, 10, 18, 6, 4, 27 and 5 feet. He shot 30 on the front, making birdie on six of his first seven holes, and closed with a 4 under on the back.

"I wish I could bottle that," Weir said. "I think I was just seeing it better, and for whatever reason, you know, there was no indication on the putting green when I was warming up or whatever that was going to tell me it was going to be like that. It just felt normal. ... It looked easy after those first two.

"I just kind of built on that momentum and just kept doing the same thing. Just tried to keep ... the pedal down, because I knew the scores were pretty low today."

Weir actually had an outside chance at an 11-under 60 when his 5-iron approach on the par-5 18th found the fringe, but his putt from 59 feet slid 4 feet by. Weir slumped to his knees, clutched his putter and looked skyward in disappointment as the ball flirted with the hole.

"I told Brennan (Little, his caddy), I said my low score on TOUR is 10 under," Weir said. "I wasn't thinking the number of 62. I was just thinking 10 under. If I shoot 11 under, that would be my lowest ever. Instead of concentrating on trying to lag it down there, I wanted to concentrate on making that thing, and I almost did."

Weir came to Boston playing well after two top-10s in his last three starts. He tied for fifth at the RBC Canadian Open and then added a tie for seventh last week at The Barclays where he was just two strokes shy of the playoff between Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Kevin Sutherland after closing with a 1-over 72.

Weir wasn't hitting the ball as crisply as he wanted during the first three rounds at Ridgewood but, "I managed by game well and scrambled well and dug it out," he said. In the end, Weir drew confidence from the performance lifted him to 18th in the FedExCup standings.

"I had chances all the way in, just seemed to be burning the edge," Weir explained. "When I really look back at the week, I was only two shots out of the playoff and I had some good looks at it coming in."

Unlike a year ago, when Weir came to TPC Boston ranked 88th in the FedExCup, he can afford to relax and let himself play. He opened with rounds of 65-68 last year, but didn't break par on the weekend and faded to a tie for 30th. He only moved up one spot in the FedExCup, as a result, and didn't advance to the BMW Championship.

"I was kind of struggling with my game coming in here," Weir recalled. "I wasn't very confident with my game and it showed on the weekend. I feel like I have a lot more confidence, been playing a lot better, been right there in the mix two of my last three tournaments, Canada and last week. I feel like I'm playing good golf.

"So that's a little different scenario than last year."

And when the putts start falling like they did on Friday, Weir just tried to stay out of his own way.

"It's been kind of my goal the last month or so was to get off to better starts in tournaments," Weir said. "It seems like I've been coming from behind all the way, even where I finished second at Memorial. I had 73 or 74 the first round and rallied back.

"But I've just kind of put it in my mind to try to get off to a better start, and obviously this was way exceeding my expectations, but I just wanted to get to off a solid start, and once I did that at the start of the round today, I just wanted to keep that going."