Tataurangi breaks out of slump with career day

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FORT SMITH, Ark. -- In a classic understatement, Phil Tataurangi has struggled on the Nationwide Tour in 2009. The 37-year-old New Zealand native entered this week's Fort Smith Classic with a string of eight consecutive missed cuts and trailing 114 players on the season money list. The majority of his $17,007 came from a tie for eighth place at the Moonah Classic in Australia in early March. Since then he's had his weekends free to spend time with his family.

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Phil Tataurangi fired a 28 on the front side at Hardscrabble C.C. on Thursday.

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Tataurangi turned a small corner during Thursday's sweltering round by posting an 8-under 62 and grabbing the first-round lead at Hardscrabble Country Club. His best-ever opening day was highlighted by a 7-under par 28 on the front nine that included a hole-in-one at the 179-yard, 8th.

"(That was) as good as it's been in a long, long time," he said. "Like about seven years or something."

Australian Gavin Coles holds down second place with a 7-under 63. Tee McCabe, Andrew Johnson and Jason Enloe share third place at 64.

Tataurangi wasn't perfect off the tee, hitting only seven of 13 fairways, but his iron play was stellar as his missed only two greens in regulation on a day when the heat index reached 101 degrees.

"When it's your day it doesn't matter what golf course or where you're playing," he said after seven birdies and an eagle. "When it's your day you just want to get out of the way and make as many as you can and add them up at the end."

They added up to matching both the lowest opening round in the tournament's 12-year history and the lowest front nine score since the event landed in Northwest Arkansas in 1998.

Not bad for a veteran who hasn't held or shared the first-round lead since the 1996 Monterrey Open in Mexico.

"I guess if people were just looking at the scores they'd say it came out of the blue," said Tataurangi, who owns a scoring average of 73.13 which puts him No. 130 on Tour this year. "There's a lot of different ways to make lots of different scores."

Tataurangi admitted that looks are deceiving when examining his 2009 record.

"I've had a stretch of playing poorly and I've just been chipping away at it and chipping away at it and the last three of four weeks I feel like I've been getting a bit closer," he said. "Last Friday I shot 6-under in Knoxville but it didn't end up being good enough to play the weekend but it was something to build on. Starting out today I felt like I had a little bit of momentum going from last week. Even though it wasn't Sunday momentum but it was nice to carry it over."

McCabe, who stands No. 157 on the money list, said he "maximized" his efforts on Thursday morning, getting everything he could out of a round that forced him to salvage par with an 18-foot putt and a pair of 10-footers. The day began with a birdie for McCabe, who then ran off four in a row to make the turn at minus-5.

"Nothing goes through your mind," he said of the string. "It's like after the fact. At some point you think 'how many birdies did I just make in a row?' I was just having fun making putts."

Maybe there's something about the Tour's shortest course of 6,783 yards that suits McCabe, who finished T4 and T8 here the past two years. McCabe has made only three cuts in 11 starts and his T60 at last week's Knoxville Open was the best finish thus far.

"Last week I hit it the best I've hit it as a professional and made absolutely nothing. If I made a putt, it was probably a bad putt that went in," he said after bettering his season-best score by four strokes. "When the putter is going good, it's totally different. I don't know if the hole looks bigger, you just feel like you've already made it, which doesn't happen to me very often but it did today."

First-Round Notes:

• Kevin Johnson, winner twice in the past three weeks and No. 2 on the money list, struggled to a 1-over-par 71. Johnson had four birdies, three bogeys and a double-bogey.

• Past champions in the field: 1998 winner Mark Hensby (72), 2001 winner Jay Delsing (68) and 2007 winner Jay Williamson (71).

• Bob May and Phil Tataurangi both had aces on Thursday. May had a hole-in-one at the 200-yard, 2nd hole while Tataurangi made his at the 179-yard, 8th hole.

• Adam Bland had the only bogey-free round of the day -- a 1-under-par 69.