Round 1 Notes – Buick Invitational
First-Round Notes – Thursday, January 24, 2008WEATHER: The high on Thursday was 54 with the low of 42 degree. 0.06” of rain fell in the morning while 0.40” fell overnight. Winds were south to southwest at 10-15 mph with gusts up to 23 mph.
Troy Matteson shot a first-round 66 on the more difficult South Course on Thursday. It is Matteson’s lowest career score at score in nine career rounds at Torrey Pines. His previous best was last year’s third-round 67, which put him at T4 through three rounds. Matteson played in the second-to-last group in 2007 playing with Tiger Woods and Charles Howell III who finished first and second, respectively. Matteson shot a disappointing final-round 76 to finish T23.
Matteson is the first player since 2000 to hold the first-round lead while playing on the South Course at Torrey Pines. Davis Love III led that year by one stroke over Phil Mickelson with a 65 on the first day. Before that, Ben Crenshaw shot an opening-round 65 on the South Course to lead by one stroke over Andy Bean in 1991.
Matteson’s career low first round was a 67 at last year’s BMW Championship. The 27-year-old, Georgia Tech graduate, finished T8 earlier this year at the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Matteson, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are three of the nine former NCAA individual champions in the field this week. Below is how they all faired:
Player Year they won NCAA Title 1st-Round Score/Course Position
Phil Mickelson 1989-90, 1992 70 (NC) T20
Todd Demsey 1993 70 (SC) T20
Justin Leonard 1994 76 (SC) T123
Tiger Woods 1996 67 (SC) T3
Charles Warren 1997 74 (NC) T94
Charles Howell III 2000 68 (NC) T7
Troy Matteson 2002 65 (SC) 1
Ryan Moore 2004 78 (SC) T148
Jamie Lovemark* 2007 73 (SC) T74
*playing this week as an amateur.
Playing in his 10th career PGA TOUR event, Brad Adamonis matched his PGA TOUR career-best round from the opening round of this year’s Sony Open in Hawaii by shooting a 6-under-par 66 and is alone in second. Before the start of the season, the 2008 PGA TOUR rookie had made one cut on the PGA TOUR, finishing T76 at the 2004 Barclays Classic. In his first full season on the PGA TOUR in 2008, the 35-year-old from Rhode Island has made the first two cuts of his season with a T32 finish at the Sony Open in Hawaii and a T50 finish at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.
Adamonis, who now lives in Hallandale, FL, finished T9 at the 2007 PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament after finishing 33rd on the 2007 Nationwide Tour money list. Part of his 2007 Nationwide Tour season included outlasting Tjart van der Walt, Vance Veazey and Ron Whittaker to win an eight-hole playoff at the WNB Golf Classic in Midland, TX.
Three-time defending champion Tiger Woods shot a 5-under par on the South Course in his first start of the season and riding a two-tournament winning streak, having won the BMW Championship and TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola at the end of 2007.
Despite being a five-time winner at the Buick Invitational and having never finished outside the top 10 in his ten career starts at this event, Woods has never held or shared the first-round lead. His second-round 77 on the South Course in 2002 remains as the only above-par round he has registered in 40 career tournament rounds (includes today). In Woods’ five Buick Invitational victories, his opening scores have been 68 (1999), 70 (2003), 69 (2005), 71 (2006) and 66 (2007).
Rory Sabbatini shot a first-round 67 on the North Course. This is Sabbatini’s startg at the Buick Invitational, his best finish (T5) coming in 2002.
Sabbatini, and his wife, Amy, donated $170,000 to the United Through Reading Military program at a ceremony for sailors at the Navy assault ship Boxer on Wednesday. The program is a nonprofit that allows deployed soldiers who are onboard Navy ships overseas to read books aloud to their children through DVDs.
Woods has an impressive record in season openers (see chart below) finishing in the Top 10 in every one of his initial forays of a season as a professional except for his career debut back in 1996. He’s made his initial start of the season at the Buick Invitational the past two years, winning both times and has won this tournament for the past three years and five times overall.
Between the two of them, they have won seven of the last nine Buick Invitationals.
Tiger Woods Phil Mickelson
Year Event Finish Year Event Finish
1996 Gr. Milwaukee Open T60 1992 Mercedes-Benz T30
1997 Mercedes-Benz 1 1993 Tucson T8
1998 Mercedes-Benz T2 1994 Mercedes-Benz 1
1999 Mercedes-Benz T5 1995 Mercedes-Benz 19
2000 Mercedes-Benz 1 1996 Mercedes-Benz 28
2001 Mercedes-Benz T8 1997 Mercedes-Benz T11
2002 Mercedes-Benz T10 1998 Mercedes-Benz 1
2003 Buick Invitational 1 1999 Mercedes-Benz T22
2004 Mercedes-Benz T4 2000 Bob Hope Chrysler T16
2005 Mercedes-Benz T3 2001 Mercedes-Benz T28
2006 Buick Invitational 1 2002 Bob Hope Chrysler 1
2007 Buick Invitational 1 2003 FBR Open T9
2004 Bob Hope Chrysler 1
2005 Buick Invitational T56
2006 Bob Hope Chrysler T5
2007 Bob Hope Chrysler T45
Starts 12 Cuts Made 12 Starts 16 Cuts Made 16
5 wins 11 Top 10s 4 wins 6 Top 10s
Comparing the two courses: North Course South Course
Scoring Average 71.679 74.013
Total Eagles 0 3
Total Birdies 243 191
Total Bogeys 192 292
Total Double-Bogeys 11 27
Others: 1 2
To get another perspective on the differences in the two courses:
Of the top 12 players on the leaderboard 10 played the North Course Thursday.
9 of the 10 highest scores came on the South Course.
Brett Quigley, Matthew Goggin (illness) and Charlie Wi (illness) withdrew prior to the start of the first round on Thursday morning. Quigley was replaced by Kenneth Ferrie, Goggin by Kevin Streelman, while Brad Elder made the field for Charlie Wi. Mike Weir withdrew during the first round while suffering from the Flu.
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