First round of The Players Championship concludes with Ian Poulter and Martin laird at the top: Wrap-up Part-1
The first round of the Players Championship got underway on Thursday, May 10 with ideal conditions for a low score at the sprawling TPC Sawgrass.
European players again surged to the top of the leaderboard as Ian Poulter and Martin Laird shot a sizzling seven-under, 66 at the difficult Pete Dye design to claim the share of lead on the opening 18-holes of the day.
Americans controlled the rest of the leaderboard with a handful of assorted foreign players claiming the joint sixth on the first day.
Poulter, who has done well since the star of the season, struck the ball majestically throughout the day, pulling in no fewer than eight birdies and dropped just one shot through the 18-hole stretch.
Moving into his new house which the Englishman has been building for a considerable period of time, Poulter finally appears to have gathered himself from the misery of packing and moving and is now back in his bloom to clinch the elusive Players title.
He hasn’t won a title since his last victory at the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship in 2010 and despite of his strong performances over the time, Poulter remains deprived of a title since then.
He said. "But it was also a big week for me to try to finally get in this house. The more I could get done of that, the more I could relax my brain to actually going out there and playing some good golf. It's no surprise to me to be fresh in the mind this
week; to know that I'm finally in the house and I'm relaxed and the family are happy, and all of the hassle and stress is over, and I can just go out and play golf. And I have felt relaxed this week".
Poulter started off the day with a birdie on the second on the front nine. He pulled another at fourth and dropped the only shot of the day at par-four, 7th.
He carded another birdie at the closing hole at the ninth before making the turn and kicked off a blistering back nine.
He carded five birdies on the back in all and clinched an early lead in the event.
To be continued...
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