Troy Matteson grabs outright lead in the opening round of Deutsche Bank Championship: Part 1
Troy Matteson finally decided to come out of obscurity at the first round of the Deutsche Bank Championship, where he clinched an outright lead with his impressive opening round score of six-under, 65. Ranked at Number 207 on the Official World Golf Rankings
(OWGR), Matteson is now on the verge of losing his PGA Tour card for the next year after a lacklustre display of form in the whole season.
Matteson pulled in seven birdies in the first 18 holes of the championship and remained bogey free in the front nine. He started off his day from back nine to fall for the lone bogey of the day at par-four, 10th, but quickly regained his composure
to pull in three more birdies before making the turn, resting at the top of the leaderboard.
“You know, I think with this tournament, obviously where I'm at, if I don't play well I'm not going to play next week. So I look at it like the end of the school year. So let's just see what happens.” said Matteson, who missed no fewer than 11 cuts in 25
appearances, this year. His highest finish came at the Puerto Rico Open presented by seepuertorico.com, where he missed the playoff to settle for the second place.
The 31-year-old Matteson is a former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket and former Atlanta, GA resident, and is hoping to win the Tour Championship title for the first time in his career.
World Number One, Luke Donald, known for his fondness for PGA Tour courses, carded an impressive round of five-under, 66, to finish one shot behind the lead. Donald pulled in six birdies and dropped one shot at par-five, 2nd.
He said, “It was. It was a good round. I feel like I've been hitting the ball pretty well the last few days.” Donald has come of age with bulks of experience on the PGA Tour courses and is a strong contender to win The Tour Championship.
Phil Mickelson, the heartthrob of the local crowd, probably gathered the major chunk of attention for the whole day, courtesy to the weird pinstripes he chose to wear at the TPC Boston. The lanky golfer also used the belly putter for the first time, but
fell for a disappointing round of 70 on the opening day.
“Lost a wager with a friend and had to wear these today,” Mickelson said about the funny looking pinstripes he had to wear. “What can you say? I've got to suck it up and bear it.”
Also among the crowd pullers was the latest PGA Championship winner, Keegan Bradley, who attracted the largest gallery for the day, walking the course along with his father and aunt, Pat Bradley.
Continued in part 2
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