Bjornstad leads by one after Day One in Livermore Valley  PGA TOUR Staff LIVERMORE, Calif. -- On a course as picturesque as they come, Henrik Bjornstad emerged from the pack Thursday to take the lead after the first round of the Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship, the fifth of 33 official events on the Nationwide Tour.  Five birdies and a bogey were good enough to give Henrik Bjornstad a narrow lead. (Stan Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
Bjornstad, the first Norwegian to ever earn a PGA TOUR card, recorded a 4-under 68 to lead Brad Ott, Omar Uresti and Jon Mills by one stroke. Bob Burns leads a group of six players who are two shots behind. "I kept the ball in play, which is a key here," said Bjornstad. "There are a lot of vineyards you have to stay away from. You can easily make doubles or worse out here." In addition to a 45-footer for birdie on the par-3 third hole, Bjornstad also drained 9-foot birdie putts on Nos. 4 and 7, as well as 4-footer on the par-4 17th hole. "The big key today was my putting was really solid," said Bjornstad, who finished the day with 28 putts. "I made some nice par saves and some long birdie putts." Bjornstad has played in all five events on the Nationwide Tour this season, with a T29 at the HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship his best outing. In 2006, he finished No. 152 on the PGA TOUR money list, making the cut in 17 of 31 appearances and posting a career-best T10 finish at the Buick Invitational. "I'm focusing on the Nationwide Tour," said Bjornstad. "I'll play here as much as I can and get my PGA TOUR card back hopefully." Ott made his move up the leaderboard with a five-birdie, two-bogey effort, including lengthy birdie putts on Nos. 3 (30 feet) and No. 5 (25 feet). "I hit the ball well today," said Ott, who needed just 26 putts on the day. "I drove it well, hit my irons well and made a few long putts." Extremely difficult scoring conditions faced the 144-man field at The Course at Wente Vineyards, a jaw-dropping 7,185-yard, par-72 layout Northern California wine country. Only 19 players broke par on Thursday, with the course playing over three strokes over par at 75.410 -- the highest scoring average on Tour since the second round of the 2006 LaSalle Bank Open (76.566).
"The golf course was set up really difficult," said Ott. "It is such a long course. My best drive of the day was on No. 18 and I had a 5-iron into the hole." Ott, who won his only Tour title at the 2004 Price Cutter Charity Championship, is just happy to be in the field this week. He suffered a disappointing season in 2006, finishing No. 108 on the money list with just nine made cuts to show for 29 starts. "I came here on Sunday and was the eighth alternate," said Ott, who benefited from a number of Tour players making it into the PGA TOUR's Shell Houston Open. "I came to the Monday Qualifier to hedge my bets. I played six holes and I was cold and wet and saw the writing on the wall so I called it a day. Luckily, things worked out for me." First-Round News & Notes: The shot of the day was turned in by Matt Hansen with an ace on the 141-yard third hole with an 8-iron. It was the fourth ace of the season and the third in tournament history, with Brendon de Jonge and Bob May performing the honors on No. 11 a year ago ... Dan Forsman (75) was in a tie for the lead at 3 under when he came to the closing par-4 18th hole, but finished the day in a tie for 66th place after making a 10 on the 469-yard hole ... The toughest hole during the opening round was the par-4 first hole with a 4.618 average, yielding just three birdies, 66 pars, 64 bogeys, seven double bogeys and four others. The par-5 12th hole ranked the easiest at 4.882 ... The scoring average during the first round of the 2006 Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship was 74.846 ... Tripp Isenhour won last year's tournament after sharing the 18-hole lead with Jeff Quinney at 5-under 67. He went on to beat Paul Sheehan by three strokes. Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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