Round 1 Notes – Target World Challenge
When tournament host Tiger Woods teed off this morning, he became the only player to participate in all nine Target World Challenge events. Woods and Davis Love III were the only two players who had competed in the previous eight. Love is back home in South Carolina recovering from late-season surgery and preparing for the start of the 2008 season.
There are five players in this yearís field of 16 who are making their first start in this event: Brett Wetterich (73), Zach Johnson (69), Steve Stricker (72), Niclas Fasth (72) and Rory Sabbatini (69). Only two players have ever won this event in their initial start - Tom Lehman in the inaugural event (1999) and Luke Donald in 2005.
Only two of eight first-round leaders/co-leaders have gone on to win this tournament. Davis Love held a one-stroke lead after the opening round in 2003 and won. Tiger Woods shared the opening-day lead with Colin Montgomerie and Jim Furyk in 2004 and went on to win.
Jim Furyk, making his fifth start in this event, grabbed the first-day lead with a 4-under-par 68 that included a birdie on the closing hole. Furyk leads by one shot over Zach Johnson, Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson and Rory Sabbatini. This is the third time that Furyk has held/shared the first-day lead at Target. He led by one in 2002 after an 8-under 64 and he was part of a three-way tie at 67 in 2004. Furyk has finished 15th, 6th 6th and T9 in his four previous starts.
Each of the eight previous tournament champions have been fairly close to the lead after the opening round. Only 2005 winner Luke Donald had any real distance to make up following the first day:
Year Winner After 18 Vs. the leader
1999 Tom Lehman 3rd place 3 behind
2000 Davis Love III 3rd place 2 behind
2001 Tiger Woods T3 2 behind
2002 Padraig Harrington T2 1 behind
2003 Davis Love III 1st led by one
2004 Tiger Woods T1 tied with two others
2005 Luke Donald T8 9 behind
2006 Tiger Woods T2 2 behind
Tiger Woods double-bogeyed the final hole today to finish with a 3-under-par 69. Here are Woods' opening-round scores in this event over the years:
1999 65 5-under
2000 68 4-under
2001 68 4-under
2002 68 4-under
2003 71 1-under
2004 67 4-under
2005 72 even-par
2006 68 4-under
2007 69 3-under
Today's scoring average was 71.693 on the par-72 layout. This is the second-highest opening-round scoring average in the nine years of the event. The first round in 2003 had a scoring average of 73.875, which is the only opening round above par in Target history.
There were only two eagles recorded in the opening round. Both Fred Couples and Niclas Fasth made eagle-3s on the 534-yard, 5th hole.
Vijay Singh (72) and Rory Sabbatini (69) each hit 12 of 13 fairways today.
Steve Stricker (72), Rory Sabbatini (69), Padraig Harrington (71) and Jim Furyk (68) each hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation.
Niclas Fasth (72) led the field in putting with 25.
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