Travelers Championship: First-round notebook
By By Mark Stevens, PGA TOUR Staff
CROMWELL, Conn. -- Kenny Perry used only nine putts on the front nine on his way to a bogey-free 9-under 61 and a two-stroke lead at the Travelers Championship. The 61 ties the TPC River Highlands course record with Kirk Triplett (2000), Phil Mickelson (2001), Scott Verplank (2001) and Brad Faxon (2005). The tournament record (60) belongs to Tommy Bolt set in 1954.
• Prior to today, Perry held the first-round lead 12 times in his career, winning only the 1995 Bob Hope Classic. Perry also recorded a 9-under in the first-round of the 1995 Bob Hope Classic.
• Perry's 61 set a tournament record for the low first-round score, besting five other players by a stroke.
• Perry's 61 matched his career-best round recorded while winning the 2003 Colonial.
• Perry finished with 25 total putts, well short of his best putting round of 21 at the 1989 Verizon Heritage.
• Perry recorded nine birdies on the day. His personal best for birdies in a round was 10 at the 2002 Bob Hope Classic.
• Perry recorded a 29 on the front nine equaling his career-best nine-hole total, accomplished most reently at the 2003 Colonial.
• Perry is making his 21st appearance at the Travelers Championship with his best finish coming in 1993 (T5).
• Boo Weekley birdied the first six holes (Nos 10-15) on his way to a 6-under 64. Ryuji Imada and Brian Davis have recorded birdie streaks of seven this season, while Camilo Villegas, Fredrik Jacobson and Luke Donald have streaks of six. Weekley's previous best birdie streak was five at the 2008 Verizon Heritage.
• Paul Goydos and Charles Warren both turned in bogey-free rounds of 7-under 63 to take the lead after the morning wave. Goydos has recorded a 62 two times in his career, most recently at the 2008 Frys.com Open.
• Warren, a current resident of Greenville, S.C. and a former Clemson University teammate of U.S. Open Champion Lucas Glover, was one stroke off his career-best round. He recorded a 62 at the 2005 Greensboro event (finished T3) and a 63 at the 2007 Reno-Tahoe Open (finished T2).
• Ricky Barnes shot a bogey-free 5-under 65 in the first round to follow up his solid play from last week at the U.S. Open. Barnes recorded his first top-10 finish last week at the U.S. Open (T2). He has four top-25 finishes on the PGA TOUR, two of which came as an amateur in 2003 (21st at Masters and T18 at Chrysler Classic of Tucson).
• U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover recorded a 5-under 65 and is T8 with nine other players, including U.S. Open final-round playing partner Barnes.
• Glover is the first player to tee it up the week after winning the U.S. Open since 2003 when Jim Furyk won the U.S. Open and then finished T22 at the Buick Classic. Before that, Lee Janzen finished T3 at the Western Open the week after winning the 1998 U.S. Open.
• The last time a player won a PGA TOUR event the week after winning a major was Tiger Woods in 2006 (PGA Championship followed by the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational).
• In his 27th career TOUR event, Spencer Levin turned in his best round with a 64. Levin's previous best round was a 66 at the 2009 Verizon Heritage.
• Greg Chalmers used nine putts and six birdies on his last nine holes (Nos 10-18) to shoot an opening round 6-under 64. Chalmers has never led a TOUR event in 219 career starts. His best position after the first-round was a T2 at the 2002 Bell Canadian Open. Chalmers' best round on TOUR was a 63 at the 2003 Buick Invitational.
• After an opening-round 4-under 66, Brian Gay is looking to be the first player on TOUR with three victories in 2009. Since 1996, only 10 different players have recorded three or more wins in a season including Tiger Woods (10 years), Vijay Singh (4 years), Phil Mickelson (4 years), David Duval (3 years), Kenny Perry (2 years), Ernie Els (1 year), Davis Love III (1 year), Mike Weir (1 year), David Toms (1 year) and Mark Brooks (1 year).
• Tag Ridings (64) recorded a hole-in-one on the 155 yard 11th hole in the first-round with a 9-iron. There were no hole-in-ones last year at the Travelers Championship.
• The Travelers Championship is the fifth event in the six-tournament series (PLAYERS, Memorial, St. Jude, U.S. Open, Travelers, AT&T National), where the top two money-winners, not previously exempt, earn British Open exemptions. Below are the current money standings through four events (PLAYERS, Memorial, St. Jude, U.S. Open) and their position after the first-round of play at the Travelers Championship:
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