Eyes on the Tiger, but it's Triplett who sets the record
By Associated Press
Published May 7, 2004
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Thousands of fans watching Tiger Woods post his first bogey-free round of the year missed the excitement behind them - Kirk Triplett setting the course record at the Wachovia Championship with 8-under 64.
Triplett took a two-shot lead Thursday by closing his stellar round with three straight birdies, the last from 45 feet on No. 9, just 15 minutes after Woods and his massive following were gone.
"They missed most of it, I think," said Triplett, playing two groups behind Woods.
Triplett hardly missed anything, taking 11 putts over the last nine holes to pull away from an enormous pack of players who included just about everyone except the three biggest PGA Tour stars at Quail Hollow.
Vijay Singh, trying to become the first player in nearly five years to win three straight weeks, had a chance to take the early lead until he three-putted from 18 feet for bogey on the last hole for 68.
Woods shot 69, making his birdies with simple up-and-downs on the par 5s and finishing with two solid par saves - a 75-foot bunker shot to tap-in range, and a full swing on a flop shot 40 feet from the flag that stopped 3 feet behind the hole.
More important, he took big numbers and bogeys out of the equation. Woods was surprised to hear it was his first round without a bogey this year in a stroke-play tournament.
"Doesn't Match Play count?" he asked.
Masters champion Phil Mickelson was poised to join the early leaders until he missed a 6-foot birdie on the par-5 15th and followed that with his only bogey in a round of 70. It was his 17th consecutive round at par or better.
Fredrik Jacobson, Stuart Appleby and Brett Quigley were at 66, and the half-dozen players at 67 included former Masters champion Mike Weir, who had four straight birdies in the middle of his round and three straight at the end.
No one got on a roll quite like Triplett.
"It just felt like my day," he said.
Twenty-eight players broke 70 at Quail Hollow, the result of relatively soft greens from rain last week and only moderate breezes on a hot afternoon.
LPGA: Soo-Yun Kang shot 6-under 65 and held a one-shot lead over Helen Alfredsson and Dorothy Delasin in the Michelob Ultra Open in Williamsburg, Va.
"After a few holes, I got a feeling," said Kang, who has won numerous times in Korea but didn't commit to the tour until last season.
Kang had birdie putts of 18 inches, 2 feet, 31/2 feet and 6 inches, all after hitting her 60-degree wedge. She also nearly holed a 7-iron on the par-3 fifth and made the 1-foot putt that remained.
Michelle Wie, playing in a tournament for the first time since she finished fourth at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, shot 1-over 72, and fellow teen sensation Aree Song, 18, opened with 73. Wie, 14, is playing under a sponsor's exemption.
"It wasn't a great round. It wasn't a terrible round. It was just an okay round, just kind of hacked your way through 18 holes," she said. "When I first started off I didn't really feel any adrenaline like when I go into tournaments and I am in that tournament mode."
EUROPEAN PGA: David Howell shot 6-under 66 to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the British Masters in Meriden, England.
Howell, playing in his second tournament after missing six weeks with an injured shoulder, was a stroke in front of Eduardo Romero, Michael Campbell, Trevor Immelman, Kenneth Ferrie and Andrew Coltart.
Howell had six birdies at the Forest of Arden course.
