Jones recovers, Johnson flops at Texas Open
Australia's Matt Jones recovered from a poor start at the first round of the Valero Texas Open to lead the field by a stroke at TPC San Antonio yesterday.
The 30-year-old Jones hit a double bogey on the opening hole, but made amends with six birdies and an eagle on the 14th to card a six-under-par 66, pulling one clear of second place Paul Stankowski. The American Stankowski would have remained level with Jones if not for a bogey on the 11th.
"A double wasn't the start we wanted, but the first hole is not an easy starting tee shot there at all," Jones commented after the round. "It's very narrow. After that, it was just a battle to get back to even par on the front nine."
JB Holmes, Matt Weibring, Steve Lowery and Charley Hoffman were all tied for third place on four-under 68. The best placed European was Daniel Chopra on two-under, while the best performing Briton was England's Greg Owen on one-under. But defending champion Zach Johnson (pictured), winner of this tournament for the past two years running, looks unlikely to make that three in a row - or even make the cut for Saturday.
Johnson hit a woeful eight-over-par 80 to tie for 152nd place on the leaderboard on a round that included five bogeys in the space of seven holes on the front nine. And just as Johnson's miserable showing looked like improving on the back nine, the hapless one-time Masters winner hit a staggering quadruple bogey, carding seven on the par three 13th.
With few of golf's biggest names turning out for the competition, the star performers who did make the effort might have wished they hadn't bothered. Ernie Els could only finish even after a real mixed bag of a round that comprised an eagle on the 14th - and a double bogey on the 10th.
There had been some suggestion that Sergio Garcia might have been taking on the new Oaks course with some small advantage, having served as consultant to its designer, Greg Norman. But the Spaniard could only finish one-over and tied for 64th place after a round comprised of three bogeys and a pair of birdies.
It was a similar story for one-time world No. 1 Vijay Singh, who carded four bogeys and a trio of birdies to finish one-over. That was still considerably better than John Daly, who despite a severe decline in status remains a fan favourite. Those followers will have seen little to cheer yesterday however, as the two-time major winner hit five-over 77 to tie for 129th place. At least that's still some way better than defending champion Johnson.
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