First round of BMW Championship on FedExCup Playoff Championship: Highlights - Part 1
The first day of the third leg of the FedExCup Playoff Championship, the BMW Championship, started off on a cold and windy day at the Cog Hill Golf and Country Club, where Englishman Justin Rose came out of obscurity to lead the opening round of the event.
Having just received new set of instructions from the swing guru Sean Foley, Rose churned out a flurry of birdies on both the front and back nine to surge to the top of the leaderboard, two shots clear of the rest of the field.
Rose has been battering form issues since his downslide after the Masters, although he started the season with some strong finishes on the tour events.
“I think at the beginning of the season I was playing really, really nice golf and through the Florida Swing and into the Masters I played some of the best golf I've ever played,” Rose recalled the start of the season.
“But feel like I'm sort of feeling good about things once again. Like you said, played pretty well at the Barclays. Today had a little tune up with Sean Foley actually on Tuesday and really cleaned up a couple things in my golf swing and it was really nice to see the results straightaway today,” he added.
This was the best round of the year for Rose but was definitely not the best of his career when compared to the 60 he shot at Children's Miracle Network Classic in 2006 which was also an opening round. He equaled the opening round record at BMW Championship alongside Tiger Woods, Nick price and George Fazio.
Webb Simpson, the latest American discovery and winner at Greensboro and the Deutsche Bank Championship, again pulled in another stellar performance, finishing two shots shy of the leader. He shot six-under, 65 to stay in contention for the top spot along with Mark Wilson.
K.J.Choi, the rampaging Asian star who has kept a low profile after his phenomenal victory at the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, finally made his move at the first round of the event, finishing for an outright fourth. He pulled in four birdies right from the beginning of his front nine and dropped juts one shot at the turn to card four-under, 67.
Cog Hill, however, was not equally generous to many of the big guns of the sport. Phil Mickelson, who has time and again expressed his dislike for a Rees Jones design, fell for a disappointing one-over, 72 on the opening day.
Starting off with a double bogey at par-three, 3rd, Mickelson stumbled on two more before he pulled back to a defensive mode. He carded five birdies in the rest of the round before dropping two more shots on the back nine.
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