Four players share lead in first round of Frys.com Open as Tiger Woods gradually fades away
First round of the latest Frys.com Open culminated with a crowded leaderboard as no less than 24 players finished somewhere around two shots from the lead. Four players clinched the lead as the leaderboard finally started to settle down with some fine putting
throughout the day.
Brendan Steele, along with Briny Baird, Garrett Willis and Matt Bettencourt, who are comparatively unknown players on the PGA Tour, shared the lead with their scores of four-under, 67.
Steele, winner of the Valero Texas Open, pulled in a strong back nine amidst intermittent showers which kept returning to the course every now and then. He carded five birdies and dropped just one shot in the 18-hole stretch. Baird, whose strongest finish
in the season came at the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun where he finished for a joint fifth, carded four birdies. He is hoping to break his winless streak and probably is one of the only players on the tour who has made $12-million in his career
without ever winning an event.
Willis has perhaps a far worse standing as compared to Baird, making nine cuts in his 21 appearances in the season. While Bettencourt, the 2010 Reno-Tahoe Open winner, could have easily led the first round on Friday, had he not encountered the two dreadful
bogeys, both of which came at the opening holes of front and back nines. He pulled in four birdies and a blistering eagle at par-five, 15th.
Tiger Woods, who came back to launch another offensive in the Fall Series on the tour, fell in for a disappointing day on the course, carding a two-over, 73. Starting off with a birdie on the opening hole at the front nine, he apparently lost control on
the very next hole and stumbled on two consecutive bogeys.
Woods made the turn to fall in for a disastrous double-bogey at par-five, 12th and closed the day with second birdie on the 15th. Another over-par day on Friday, can easily throw him out of the event, which would undoubtedly be a severe
blow to his ambitious plans ahead.
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