Thursday
Sep092010
Rose in early lead; birdie binge expected
Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 3:46AM
Writing from Lemont, Illinois
Thursday, September 9, 2010
With nary a breath of wind and barely a cloud in the sky, but with more than a few people on the premises, Vijay Singh opened the 107th Western Open, a.k.a. the BMW Championship, by swinging hard from the 10th tee and hammering his drive into the right rough to the right of the fairway.
Singh salvaged par, and with that, the 70-player field – ailing Scott Verplank included – began its four-day jaunt around Cog Hill Golf & Country Club’s Dubsdread course.
Before Justin Rose took the early lead with three birdies in his first six holes, the early excitement was provided by Chicago resident Luke Donald, whose eight-foot birdie bid on the 10th tumbled into the cup after a four-second wait on the edge, by Kevin Streelman, whose long bunker shot on the par-3 second bounced once and ticked off the flagstick to the delight of the 75 people following him, and by Matt Jones and Tom Gillis, two of the lesser-known – perhaps completely unknown – players in the elite field.
Jones went to 2-under with birdies on the 14th and 16th holes. Then Gillis, whose rise from obscurity to Tour title contention was detailed yesterday, also moved to 2-under. Within minutes, Rickie Fowler, bedecked in Carolina blue and white this day, Vaughn Taylor and Rose also joined the 2-under crowd. Rose, in fact, opened with birdies on the 10th, 11th and 15th, and took the lead at 3-under at 9:42 a.m.
They, too, noticed the lack of wind, a condition that should continue most of the day, laying Dubsdread open to a surplus of red numbers.
Updates will be posted as warranted, with a full report at the conclusion of the first round.
– Tim Cronin
Thursday, September 9, 2010
With nary a breath of wind and barely a cloud in the sky, but with more than a few people on the premises, Vijay Singh opened the 107th Western Open, a.k.a. the BMW Championship, by swinging hard from the 10th tee and hammering his drive into the right rough to the right of the fairway.
Singh salvaged par, and with that, the 70-player field – ailing Scott Verplank included – began its four-day jaunt around Cog Hill Golf & Country Club’s Dubsdread course.
Before Justin Rose took the early lead with three birdies in his first six holes, the early excitement was provided by Chicago resident Luke Donald, whose eight-foot birdie bid on the 10th tumbled into the cup after a four-second wait on the edge, by Kevin Streelman, whose long bunker shot on the par-3 second bounced once and ticked off the flagstick to the delight of the 75 people following him, and by Matt Jones and Tom Gillis, two of the lesser-known – perhaps completely unknown – players in the elite field.
Jones went to 2-under with birdies on the 14th and 16th holes. Then Gillis, whose rise from obscurity to Tour title contention was detailed yesterday, also moved to 2-under. Within minutes, Rickie Fowler, bedecked in Carolina blue and white this day, Vaughn Taylor and Rose also joined the 2-under crowd. Rose, in fact, opened with birdies on the 10th, 11th and 15th, and took the lead at 3-under at 9:42 a.m.
They, too, noticed the lack of wind, a condition that should continue most of the day, laying Dubsdread open to a surplus of red numbers.
Updates will be posted as warranted, with a full report at the conclusion of the first round.
– Tim Cronin
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