Matt Kuchar tees off in the Valero Texas Open – Golf News
Matt Kuchar carded a two-under par 70 in the opening round of the Valero Texas Open at the Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio to tie for the 11th position on the leaderboard.
Kuchar started off his round on a high note, as he carded three birdies on the first five holes that he played. However, his score on the front nine of the course was not as impressive as it was on the back nine.
He carded two bogeys and a birdie on the front nine to finish seven strokes behind the leader, Matt Every.
According to Kuchar, he played well on a course that really posed a great challenge to the players participating in the event.
“Yeah, it was good playing,” he said. “I was pretty pleased. This course is difficult. Getting off in the morning, the conditions were real calm and played the back-9 which I think is the easier 9, so able to make a few birdies on the back-9”.
“Got going on the front-9 and went out, it's really, really demanding, really tough,” he continued. “Hit a couple straight drives but a lot of good shots. Just the one straight drive on 9, had to chip out and nearly saved a par”.
“Not only the greens tough, the driving is tough,” he added. “Yeah, I'm very pleased”.
He is the highest ranked player (15) participating in the event, as most of the top-notch players preferred to take a week off prior to the start of the Players Championship.
KJ Choi (26) is another player to participate in the event while being ranked among the top-50 in the Official World Golf Rankings.
Choi’s front-nine performance ruined his chances of going under par on the opening day. He double-bogeyed the first hole, followed by bogeys on the second and the fifth hole that took him to two-over par for the round.
Meanwhile, Every surged to the top position after a record-breaking performance of nine-under par 63.
Throughout the round, he kept on trying for birdie shots but never seemed to struggle to make the pars.
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