Golf

Finale certainly not a breeze

Goosen and Durant lead the way as pros need wind socks and rakes in their bags.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 3, 2006

ATLANTA - Look at all the fun Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are missing.

An end-of-the-year bash for the top 30 on the PGA Tour money list turned into a final exam Thursday at the Tour Championship. Retief Goosen and Joe Durant shared the lead at 2-under 68, the highest score to lead an opening round at East Lake, and only six other players managed to break par in cool, blustery conditions.

Goosen kept trying to squeeze tee shots into the fairway, the wind blowing sideways on just about every hole. Ernie Els was a part-time player, part-time gardener while clearing pine needles out of the line of his putts.

Davis Love bogeyed the first three holes on his way to his highest score to par as a pro, 12-over 82 with no birdies.

Perhaps the only consolation is the $1.17-million for the winner at the end of the weekend.

"You just felt like you had to hang in there," said Goosen, who missed a 4-foot par putt on the 18th hole. "It's tough out there for everybody today."

Not for Tiger and Phil.

The two biggest stars on the PGA Tour decided to take this week off - Mickelson also skipped last year - taking some shine off the final tournament of the year. They spared themselves a round so challenging that it was the highest score to lead the first round at East Lake since the Tour Championship first came here in 1998.

Jim Furyk recovered from a nasty patch in his back nine to birdie two of the last four holes for 69, leaving him tied with Vijay Singh and four others.

"It was playable, but I also wasn't able to eliminate the mistakes," Furyk said. "The blustery conditions, the cool, windy weather, it made those bogeys easy to find out there. I didn't play probably as consistent as I would have liked to, but I made a bunch of birdies to cover up those mistakes and had a good day."

Singh had a chance to reach 3 under until missing a 6-foot birdie putt on the 16th - no one made birdie there in the first round - and three-putted from 40 feet for bogey on the 17th.

"I played pretty well," Singh said. "It's unfortunate about a few putts, but I'll take it in these conditions."

Love started by hitting into the bunkers and getting a plugged lie on the first three holes, and it never got any better. Love was the only player who failed to make birdie. "If I had hit it on the green, I wouldn't have had those lies," Love reasoned.

True, but he might have saved his fragile back by not having to do gardening. The wind covered the greens with leaves and pine needles. Els and K.J. Choi, last week's winner at the Chrysler Championship at Innisbrook, got put on the clock on the seventh hole after spending several minutes clearing the line of their putts. Choi finally finished, and when he stood over his putt, more leaves had blown in his way.

"We need a damn gardener out there," Els said after a his 71. "It's going to be a problem all week because the leaves are coming off now with this wind. If you hit it 30 feet, you've got a lot of leaves. Even if you stood over your second shot in the fairway, you could just see the leaves coming."

Three months ago, Durant was in danger of losing his card. He turned it around, then hit his stride the last month, winning at Disney to earn a two-year exemption and tying for fourth to nail down his spot at East Lake. Then Thursday, Durant opened with four birdies on his first seven holes.

[Last modified November 3, 2006, 02:23:11]