Cink, Henry share lead, Na cards 16
Stewart Cink and J.J. Henry share the opening round lead at the Valero Texas Open after carding a pair of 5 under par 67s. Charley Hoffman, Jhonnattan Vegas, Vaughn Taylor, Kevin Chappell and Adam Scott share third, one shot back.Cink was a late entry into the field, deciding last Friday night to add San Antonio to his schedule after a missed cut at the Masters.
“ I was really disappointed with missing the cut at the Masters and I didn't really feel like I would go forward by taking another week off so decided to add this one and just, you know, get right back to it instead of thinking about missing the cut at a Major for another week,” Cink said. “I'm glad I did that. Played well, played really well, actually. Had some good opportunities to have a good round and I'd like to keep this up for four days. Be fun.”
Fun was not the way to describe the day, or, make that hole/nightmare for Kevin Na at the ninth. To make matters worse, or, depending how sadistic you are, better since he was miked up, Na explained how he carded a 16 there.
“It's unfortunate because I was one under par going into that hole, score anything under par, 3, 4-under or 2, 3-under was a good score today and, you know, I hit a poor tee shot and it looked like it was in the junk and I hit another one which it was in play and it ended up being unfortunate that I found the first one and I call unplayable,” he said. “Re-teed and hit it in there again and then it was -- then the rest you guys saw. I don't really want to go through it again.
I hit a shot, felt like it hit me and called it on myself and we checked it and it did hit me so the stroke penalty and then I whiffed one and I guess nobody saw that so I had to call that on myself. That was another one.
“I thought it was somewhere between -- I got done with the hole, my caddie, I think I made somewhere between 10 and 15 but I think it's close to a 15. They gave me 14 in the beginning and it sounded about right. After the round they said 15. We went and checked the camera. I counted it myself, it was 16 so I just signed for a 16.”
It was a much better day for defending champion Scott. He is trying to successfully defend after a close call at the Masters last week where he tied for second, two shots behind winner Charl Schwartzel.
It was slow going for most of the day but Scott finished strong with birdies on three of his last five holes, including 17 and 18.
His threesome also happened to be in the group following Na, so they saw the drama as it unfolded.
“That was interesting,” Scott said. “He was miked up. That must have been good entertainment today for the viewers. Yeah, you can really only turn away and giggle to yourself.”
Hopefully for Scott, that giggle leads him to another victory.
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