While Australia's Nathan Green and American Michael Connell swept into the lead at the first round of the Honda Classic yesterday, England's Oliver Wilson was just a stroke behind the leaders on a day when some of Europe's big names failed to fire.
Green and Connell are tied for top spot on five-under-par 65, after both players got around the demanding PGA National Champion Course without dropping a shot. Green racked up five birdies while Connell took three, but also managed an eagle on the 3rd.
Wilson is tied for third place, a bogey-free round of 66 putting him on level terms with Colombia's Camilo Villegas and Brazil's Alexandre Rocha. Graeme McDowell was England's next well-placed player, tying for ninth place on two-under along with promising US rookie Alex Prugh and Anthony Kim, another American player who has been tipped for great things in the last few years.
Lee Westwood is still in contention, a shot further back on one-under. Westwood's round was as unspectacular as his score indicates, but there were no major catastrophes, a bogey on the sixth wiped out with two birdies on the 10th and 17th.
Another Englishman, Justin Rose, is tied for 34th place after finishing the course on par, while Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy finished one-over-par. After a second place finish at the Phoenix Open last week, rookie Rickie Fowler had a disappointing start here, coming in two over, though it could have been much worse - the Californian hit no fewer than six bogeys, including two on the opening two holes, but Fowler managed to reduce the deficit with a quartet of birdies.
Fowler wasn't the only player misfiring, with South Africa's Ernie Els ending the day three over after accumulating three bogeys and a double bogey on the 17th. Paul Casey finished on the same score despite a fantastic start; Casey hit a birdie on the 1st and an eagle on the 3rd, only for his game to crumble on the back nine, the world No. 6 collecting four bogeys and a double bogey over the course of the last eight holes.
That still wasn't as bad as Sergio Garcia. The Spanish sultan of sulk contrived to amass three bogeys and a brace of double bogeys, finishing the round four-over-par. And last year's winner, defending champion YE Yang finished just four places from the foot of the leaderboard, racking up an agonising nine-over-79 after scoring a quintuple bogey on his second hole, the 11th. With a course this unforgiving, perhaps Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson were on to something when they opted to give this week's tournament a miss.
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