•Graeme McDowell holed out with a gap wedge from 120-yards for eagle on his final hole (No. 9) to finish the day at 8-under 64. McDowell, who has two victories on the European Tour, holds a one-stroke lead over Stuart Appleby. It is the first time that McDowell has held the lead at the end of a round on the PGA TOUR. McDowell, who is making his ninth PGA TOUR start of 2006, made his first cut of the season last week at the Shell Houston Open (finished tied for 54th). He lost in the first round of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship to Vijay Singh 5 and 4.
•In his last 90 holes, Stuart Appleby has posted only five
bogeys versus 31 birdies. He is 34-under-par during this stretch. The
following is a breakdown of his last five rounds:
Zurich Classic - Score - Birdies Bogeys - Eagles •The last time a first-round leader went on to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans was 1992, when Chip Beck shot a 5-under 67 and was tied with Seve Ballesteros, Brad Bryant and Jay Haas after 18 holes. Beck went on to defeat Greg Norman by a stroke. •Retief Goosen, who opened with a 6-under 66, is making his first career start in New Orleans. So far this year; he has four top-five finishes in six starts in 2006, including finishing in the top four in his last three starts. Goosen opened the season at the Accenture Match Play Championship losing in the quarterfinals to Zach Johnson (T5). He finished second at THE PLAYERS Championship, followed by tie for fourth at the BellSouth Classic and a tie for third at the Masters Tournament. •Chris DiMarco’s 6-under 66 is his lowest single-round score of 2006. The last time DiMarco went this low in a PGA TOUR event was at last year’s Buick Open in late July. He shot a third-round 66 and eventually tied for 12th in Michigan. This is DiMarco’s 11th visit to New Orleans. He’s enjoyed considerable success, turning in four top-10s, including a personal best, tied for third, last year at the TPC Louisiana. •Nick Watney, who turned 25 years old on Monday, April 25, opened with a 6-under 66 at English Turn Golf and Country Club and is two-strokes back of the lead. Earlier this year he opened with a 7-under 65 (Pebble Beach Golf Links) at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and went on to finish tied for seventh, his best finish of 2006. •Jeff Sluman, who birdied his last six holes on the front nine, opened with a 6-under 66 and sits two-strokes back of Graeme McDowell. It is his lowest opening round since the 2005 Memorial Tournament. In 2005, he opened with a 7-under 65 and finished tied for third in Dublin, Ohio. •There are 36 players from 16 countries outside the United States in the 156-player field this week at the Zurich Classic. Two are among the top-10 through the first round –Graeme McDowell (64/1), Stuart Appleby (65/2) and Retief Goosen (66/T3). International players have won eight of the first 17 events this season and that trend might continue this week as five of the last eight Zurich Classic of New Orleans crowns have been won by international players. •The 2003 Zurich Classic champion Steve Flesch opened with a 5-under 67 and sits three-strokes back of the lead. If there’s one player who is especially excited about seeing English Turn back on the PGA TOUR, it might be Flesch. The lefthander won the 2003 title and finished second in 1998 and 1999 on the course. At English Turn, Flesch is 80-under par in 27 competitive rounds. He recorded a pair of 65s on the weekend when he won in 2005. •Bubba Watson tied the PGA TOUR record with three eagles in his round on Thursday at the English Turn, becoming the 18th player in TOUR history to perform the feat and the first since Arjun Atwal at the 2006 Buick Invitational. Watson began his round on No. 1, and posted eagles on the par-5 6th hole, the par-4 13th hole and the par-5 15th hole. He went on to shoot a 6-under 66. •NOTES: Matt Kuchar was the last player into the field after Chris Perry pulled out due to an injured wrist. Kuchar made 18 straight pars on Thursday at English Turn…Harrsion Frazar, Cody Freeman, David Branshaw and Jeff Sluman got around English Turn with 23 putts… Hunter Mahan and Monday qualifier, Cody Freeman both recorded a hole-in-ones on the eighth hole on Thursday using an 8-iron…Graeme McDowell was the only player to hit all 18 greens in regulation…Fred Funk was 100% in driving accuracy percentage hitting all 14 fairways. •Justin Rose, who finished at 3-under 69, had an interesting round on Thursday. Rose opened with a seven on the par-4 first hole. He then went eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie on holes No. 12 through No. 15. •The high first-round score by an eventual winner in tournament history was by Lon Hinkle in 1978. He shot a 2-over 74 at Lakewood Country Club but recovered to shoot 67-64-66 over the final 54 holes to win by a stroke. •There are seven past champions of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in the field this week with a total of nine wins: Tim Petrovic (2005), Steve Flesch (2003), David Toms (2001), Carlos Franco (1999 and 2000), Lee Westwood (1998), Scott McCarron (1996) and Brad Faxon (1997) •Defending Champion Tim Petrovic was one of 18 players that recorded a bogey-free round on Thursday. Players with bogey-free rounds from the morning wave included: Lucas Glover, Cameron Beckman, Kent Jones, Greg Kraft and Matt Kuchar. While the afternoon wave of players to go bogey-free included: Graeme McDowell, Stuart Appleby, Charlie Hoffman, Ian Poulter, J.L. Lewis, Ryan Hietala, Joe Durant, Dean Wilson, Phil Mickelson, Stuart Deane and Neal Lancaster
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