Ronald J.J. Henry, Stewart Cink surge into first round lead at Valero Texas Open – Golf news
Ronald J. J. Henry and Stewart Cink managed a score of 5-under par in the first round of the $6.2-million Valero Texas Open 2011 to surge into early lead.
The tournament is taking place at the par-72, Tournament Player Club in San Antonio.
The duo teed off from the back and fired an identical score without dropping a shot. Henry reeled three birdies in the back-nine, with his best shot at the 17th hole, where he recovered the lost ball from a ridge for a birdie. He picked two more in the front and finished the day with a good start to the tournament. He suffered from accuracy issues in driving, but was superb when it came to greens hit in regulation.
“It was obviously a nice day,” said Henry after the first round. “Anytime you can start no bogeys on the card today, obviously is always nice and on a difficult golf course. The wind blew a little bit. Pretty undulating greens. I just tried to hit in the fairway.”
Meanwhile, Cink, who lifted the Claret Jug at the 2008 US Open birdied the opening hole on the back-nine and anchored two more on his way to the front-nine. He smoothly stoked a beautiful birdie putt at the par-5 second, but could not emulate the same shot in any of the next holes. He birdied one last hole on the front-nine and surged into early lead.
Similar to Henry, Cink too faced problems in driving accuracy. He attained a success rate of 57 per cent in hitting the fairways, which will tell the American that he needs more practice in finding the perfect landing area for his tee shots.
After the practice round on Wednesday, Cink said the problem was due to come. He said, “It's early and we got some conditions coming our way, little unpredictable, and we're a little inexperienced in a northern breeze here. I'm sure -- I don't think this course is going to yield super low scores, though.”
Cink missed the half way cut in Masters recently and flew back home along with several other players. However, this week, he is up for the challenge and will not let this one slip out of his hands easily.
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