Tom Watson defends his Mitsubishi Electric Championship title with good pace in round one
Tom Watson says he puts pressure on himself to get a good start at the start of any spell.
Seems like this tactic works for him.
With the first round of The 2011 Mitsubishi Electric Championship ending yesterday, Watson stood valiantly at second place of the leader board with a bold 64.
The 61-year old golfer scored an 8 under par for the day to chase the first round leader, Russ Cochran. The American leader piloted Watson with his impressive 62 that included a bogey-less collection of 2 brilliant eagles and 6 birdies.
Watson’s pace was fast but Cochran had the eagle advantage for the lead.
The runner up is hence tied at the second position of the leader board with Ben Crenshaw. Like Watson, his compatriot also managed to card a score of 64 for the day and supported an 8 under par.
Unlike Watson, who is looking for his 14th victory at the tour, Crenshaw is aiming for his first Champions Tour win and has recorded 13th place as the best finish out of his 5 appearances.
“At the start of each year, there is always anxiety for me. So I put pressure on myself that makes a good start for the year. This is exactly like the first drive of the first hole of the tournament”, said the 61-year old defending champion.
The defending champion won last year’s Mitsubishi Electric Championship with a 1 stroke lead over Fred Couples, who chased Watson’s total score of 122 with a 22 under par.
As for the first hole of the event, Watson birdied the second round of the Hualalai Golf Course to create an air of success after the par. As expected, his round went bogey free just like the leader and he ended the first round with a total of 8 birdies.
Overall, his back nine seemed to provide more birdie prospects to the Kansas resident as compared to the front nine.
The golfer with 68 professional victories carded a 34 from the outbound and collected two birdies from hole number 2 and 7. As for the inbound, it ended with a 30 on the score card since Watson grabbed 4 back to back birdies from hole number 10 to 13 and
two consecutive birdies from hole number 15 and 16.
The golfer, who is on the edge of becoming a veteran on the Champions Tour, is thus second at a 42 player field and is aiming to win a game that can add to his 13 Champions tour victory record.
The hall of famer will tee off at 1:00 p.m. at the 72 par golf course for the second round of The 2011 Mitsubishi Electric Championship on Saturday.
“It’s nice to finally say that I have won in Hawaii”, said Watson after his 13th Champions’ win.
Let’s see if he wins this time as well.
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