Round 1 Notes – THE BARCLAYS
Paul Casey is making his first career start at The Barclays and is off to a good start with a round of 5-under 66. Thursday’s round is a nice change of pace for Casey as he has been subject to slow starts in 2008. In 14 starts this year, Casey has only been inside the top 25 through 18 holes twice (T7 – PODS Championship; T11 – The Masters Tournament). His 2008 first-round scoring average of 73.31 ranks him No. 207 in Round 1 Scoring Average on the PGA Tour this year.Hunter Mahan eagled the par-4 first en route to a round of 9-under 62 and the first-round lead at The Barclays as the PGA Tour begins the PLAYOFFS for the FedExCup. Paul Casey fired a round of 5-under 66 and finds himself trailing by four shots heading into tomorrow’s second round.
The last time a player held a four-stroke lead after the first 18 holes of a PGA Tour event was at the 2007 Valero Texas Open, when Jesper Parnevik opened with a round of 9-under 61 and a four-shot lead over 10 players. Parnevik eventually finished second after losing to Justin Leonard in a playoff.
Thursday’s round of 62 marks Mahan’s 12th round of 64 or lower in his PGA Tour career. Mahan has now carded a round of 62 five times in his career, including a third-round 62 at the 2007 Barclays at Westchester Country Club. That 62 at last year’s Barclays propelled Mahan from T31 to T3 and into Sunday’s final pairing with K.J. Choi and eventual champion Steve Stricker. Mahan carded a final-round 76 and finished T17.
Mahan’s third-round 62 last year tied the par-71 course record at Westchester Country Club. Jim Wright also shot 62 in the second round of The Barclays in 1976 on the par-71 version of WCC.
Mahan made a habit out of going low in the first round in 2007 with two 62s and a 65 to his name. In 2008 he has struggled in round one with zero rounds below 68 and rounds of 80 and 81 at the British Open and PGA Championship, respectively.
The last player to hold the first-round lead at The Barclays and parlay that into victory was Dennis Paulson in 2000 (65-68-75-68—276).
Mahan and Kevin Streelman (67) each managed to eagle the 380-yard par-4 first on Thursday. Mahan did so with No. 1 being his first hole of the day, while Streelman turned in 2-under 34 and played it as his 10th hole.
Streelman, who lives in Winfield, IL, is playing a bit of a home game this week as his parents are from nearby Glen Rock, NJ and his grandparents are buried in a cemetery adjacent to Ridgewood Country Club.
After missing the cut in five out of six Tournaments from the Puerto Rico Open to the Wachovia Championship, Kevin Streelman seems to have righted the ship with 10 made cuts in a row heading into The Barclays. In that stretch of 10 Tournaments, Streelman has moved from No. 138 to No. 102 in the FedExCup points list.
Since finishing runner-up at the Puerto Rico Open in March, when he took a one-shot lead into the final round, Bo Van Pelt (67) has not recorded a single top-10 in 15 starts. He held a share of the 18-hole lead and solo possession of the 36-hole lead at the Buick Open before stumbling with weekend rounds of 73-72 and a T17 finish.
Dudley Hart recorded one of the better afternoon rounds with a 4-under 67 in his 12th career start at The Barclays. In his 11 prior starts, Hart has only missed the cut twice, but has yet to record a single top-10. His best finish came in 2005, a T12.
Hart is in the midst of a solid 2008 campaign where he has recorded four top-10 finishes (his best total since 2001) and a T3 finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (his best PGA Tour finish since a playoff loss at the 2004 EDS Byron Nelson Championship).
Hart entered the 2008 season on a Major Medical Exemption after his wife was diagnosed with non-smokers lung cancer in May of 2007. Hart was allowed 15 Tournaments to make $485,931 and receive fully exempt status for the remainder of 2008. With his T12 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in March came a $110,825 paycheck, surpassing the needed money.
Rich Beem entered the week ranked No. 114 in the FedExCup after a third-place finish at the Wyndham Championship and has put himself in position for yet another move with a round of 68 on Thursday. Beem entered last year’s PLAYOFFS for the FedExCup ranked No. 134 and used a T7 finish at The Barclays to move up to No. 113 and into the following week’s Deutsche Bank Championship.
Twenty-four players managed to card rounds below par in the morning wave, while only 20 players were able to do so in the afternoon wave.
Players in the top 10 on the FedExCup points list who failed to shoot par or better on Thursday: Geoff Ogilvy (72), Padraig Harrington (72), Stewart Cink (73) and Ryuji Imada (76).
After the first round, six players in the top 10 on The Barclays leaderboard are not currently in the top 100 on the FedExCup points list: Bo Van Pelt (116), Kevin Streelman (102), Charley Hoffman (105), George McNeill (101), Rich Beem (114) and Jesper Parnevik (139).
Return to Tournament Notebook archives