Nathan Smith takes first-round lead in Arkansas
FORT SMITH, Ark – Sometimes a change works for the better. Rookie Nathan Smith proved it Thursday afternoon by posting a 9-under 61 in the opening round of the Fort Smith Classic. Smith’s bogey-free effort at Hardscrabble Country Club put him at the top of the leaderboard, three shots in front of North Carolina’s Matt Davidson (64).Chris Kirk, former Arkansas Razorback Brendan Pappas and Chris Parra are tied for third with 5-under 65s.
There are nine more players jammed at 4-under 66, including local favorite John Daly, who is making his first Nationwide Tour start since the 1991 Yuma Open.
Daly bypassed a potential U.S. Open qualifier to return to his home state for the first time since his rookie year in 1990, the same year the Tour began.
“It’s a good start,” said Daly, who has made 429 PGA TOUR starts and won five times since he earned his wings. “It’s one of my better starts in the first round. I’ve been off to shaky starts, shaky six holes in the first round and it seems like I’ve been 2- or 3-over par and having to fight back. Today was a nice, solid round of golf.”
It was even more solid for Smith, who hasn’t had much success in his initial year on Tour, making the cut in four of his eight starts with no top-25 finishes and less than $10,000 earned.
Smith posted rounds of 70-77 last week and missed the cut by three shots at the European Tour’s Estoril Open de Portugal in Lisbon and decided it was time for something new.
“I’ve got a good luck mustache going this week,” said Smith, sporting some new growth on his upper lip. “I was just trying to shake it up a little bit and get a slump-buster going this week.”
Give some credit to the ‘stache but perhaps a new putter in the bag should be grabbing a few kudos as well. Smith made a late change Wednesday evening and the result was 24 total putts in the opener, including several birdies from the 20-30 foot range.
“My putting hasn’t been very good this year,” said Smith, who is No. 65 in putting average. “I just started making a couple of putts. I didn’t hit the ball all that spectacularly but I hit my driver well when I needed to and I put myself in good positions.”
Everything was solid for Smith, who hasn’t been better than a T27 this season. He hit nine of 13 fairways and 14 of 18 greens in regulation.
“I wouldn’t expect that I’d come out and shoot 61 today, there’s no doubt about that,” said Smith, who ranks No. 112 in Scoring Average Before the Cut (71.76). “I know I can play and I don’t feel like I’ve been struggling that bad. I was trying to stay patient and wait until something good happened. Today is a step in the right direction.”
It was a pretty good step too for Davidson, a conditional member of the Tour who needed to go through Open Qualifying on Monday just to make it into the field and get his first start of the 2010 season.
“I thought it was going to be tough. If you’re out here every week it’s a little easier to get comfortable,” said Davidson. “If you keep playing on the mini-tours and keep working on your game I think you can jump in and do all right but it’s hard.”
With a reshuffle of the conditional members looming next week, Davidson knows it’s key that he do well this week and move higher in pecking order.
“I’ve been playing well for a couple months now but I haven’t been able to get into a tournament,” he said. “I didn’t play all that well at Q-school. That’s why I came out here to do the Monday qualifier.”
Davidson shot an 8-under 63 to get a chance this week and took full advantage of his play. He missed only two fairways and two greens in Thursday’s opener.
“The key out here is driving it in the fairway,” said Davidson. “This is a good golf course for me because I don’t hit it that long. I did make some putts. I made a lot of those 8- and 10-footers and you’ve got to have those.”
First-Round Notes:
* Brian Smock withdrew after 11 holes due to a back injury.
* Jim Carter (75) withdrew after the first round.
* Rookie Nathan Smith has made four cuts in eight starts this year on the Nationwide Tour. His best finish is a T27 at The Rex Hospital Open last month in Raleigh, N.C. He is No. 119 on the money list with $9,833. His previous best round this year was a 4-under 67 in the first round at TPC Wakefield Plantation.
* Nathan Smith’s 61 today is the lowest first-round score in tournament history. The previous low was 62 by Jim Carter in 2004 and Phil Tataurangi in 2009.
* Nathan Smith’s 61 is one shy of the tournament record of 60 set by Jeff Freeman in 2001 (Round 3) and Chris Couch in 2005 (Round 4).
* Nathan Smith’s 61 is the lowest first-round score on the Nationwide Tour this year. Jim Herman posted a 62 (10-under) at the Moonah Classic and Scott Brown had a 62 (9-under) at The Rex Hospital Open.
* Nathan Smith’s three-stroke lead is the largest 18-hole lead in tournament history and only the second time in the 13 years that a single player has led by more than one shot. Jim Carter led by two after the initial 18 in 2004.
* Matt Davidson’s last start on the Nationwide Tour came in 2009 at The Rex Hospital Open, where he was also an Open Qualifier. Davidson missed the cut in that event. This is Davidson’s ninth career start on Tour. His last made cut came at the 2006 Miccosukee Championship (T55).
* The first-round scoring average for the par-70 layout was 70.168.
* Nathan Smith (61), Chris Parra (65) and Bob May (68) were the only players to shoot bogey-free rounds today.
* Stephen Leaney and Patrick Sheehan hit all 13 fairways.
* Matt Davidson and Jhonattan Vegas led the field by hitting 16 greens in regulation.
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