This week's Transitions Championship at Palm Harbour, Florida isn't exactly short on star quality, but it's the little known Garret Willis who leads the field by two strokes after yesterday's opening round.
The 36-year-old, ranked 251st in the world, finished six-under-65 to top the leaderboard after carding a total of seven birdies, despite an iffy beginning when he bogeyed the 3rd. Defending champion Retief Goosen and promising rookie Rickie Fowler were amongst the players tied for second place, each man coming home at four-under after mistake-free rounds with four birdies apiece. Sweden's Carl Pettersson was also in the mix, shooting five birdies and a bogey to share second place.
England's Ross Fisher was the highest placed Briton, tying for eighth place on three-under after picking up four birdies, a bogey on the 17th preventing the 29-year-old from figuring even more prominently in the placings. Ireland's Padraig Harrington was tied for 12th place at two-under despite an eagle at the 11th, two further birdies balancing out a couple of bogeys to keep Pod in the pack.
Current world No. 2 Steve Stricker was one-under after carding three birdies to outweigh a pair of bogeys, but that score was only enough to see the American tie for 21st place. Scotland's Martin Laird was tied on the same score, as was 2008 Masters winner Trevor Immelman - the South African was playing only his third tournament after coming back from a wrist-injury that kept him from the fairways for the latter half of 2009. Even John Daly came home one-under, which is hugely encouraging in the light of the two-time major winner's recent results.
England's Ian Poulter limped home two-over after carding two birdies and four bogeys. Fellow countryman Justin Rose had a similarly poor show, finishing on the same score after picking up three birdies and five bogeys, four of which came in the space of five error-strewn holes between the 5th and 9th.
Still, the most wretched round of the day went to Ryo Ishikawa. In his homeland of Japan, the 18-year-old is already a superstar, drawing comparison with Tiger Woods after he finished last year as the money-list leader on the Japan Tour.
But outside of his home turf the teenager has disappointed, and yesterday proved his nadir thus far, Ishikawa coming home an eye-watering 12-over after carding a birdie on the first - and following that up with six bogeys, two double bogeys and even a treble on the 3rd.
I don't care where you're from, that is gonna hurt in the morning.
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