Gay gets by the cold to post hot opening round

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Brian Gay isn't used to all this cold.

Brian Gay made two cuts in his first two starts of 2008. (WireImage)

Inside the Numbers

Brian Gay's opening round

Birdies 5 Pars 13 Bogeys 0 Driving Accuracy 64 Driving Distance 253.0 Putts 28 GIR 83

When morning temperatures hovered in the mid 30s, Gay decided to hit the stationary bike for a few minutes before taking the course for his early tee time. After reaching the first hole, he found out his tee time would be delayed for what turned out to be more than a half hour.

"Yeah, it was freezing this morning," Gay said. "Being a Florida guy, I don't like the cold very much. My fingers were a little numb, toes were a little numb, but I hung in there early and kept the momentum going."

Turns out, the momentum stayed with Gay throughout his round, as he finished with a 5-under-par 66.

How cold was it?

"I wore mittens for four or five holes," he said. "I try not to. I try not to go anywhere when it's that cold."

Heading into the week, many players said that putting would be one of the keys to success this week at TPC Scottsdale, particularly since heavy rain on Monday made the course play much longer than usual.

Gay said that theory held true for him on Thursday.

"It played longer than I've ever seen it," Gay said. "Fairways were soft still. There's a lot more grass out there this year.

"I rolled the ball, putted nice," he said. "I've just been working on some putting stuff, started off well in Hawaii and putted miserable on the weekend, especially on Sunday. It was windy and I putted miserable. I played pretty solid at the Bob Hope but I hurt my neck during the tournament and was lucky enough to play even, was 12-under. But didn't putt very good there, either, on Sunday."

The injury happened while Gay was warming up on the range at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. It also changed his plans last week.

"(I) just relaxed last week and got my neck worked on all week at home and came out here pretty fresh," he said.

Fresh enough, in fact, to make a couple of impressive saves that kept his round on track, starting with one on the par-3 12th hole.

"I hit it in the left bunker, the pin was back left and I hit a great bunker shot and the green was actually still frozen," he said. "My ball landed just on the hump and it hit and it rolled 20 feet by and I made it for par.

"It felt kind of like payback, though," he added. "Even the guys I was playing with were like, man, it was a great shot. It was icy there. It was still in the shade on the left side, it was just brick hard."

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Then there was the save on 14, where he had a little confrontation with the cart path.

"I drove it in the fairway bunker and the wind was left to right and I pushed a 5-iron and hit the cart path and bounced like four times and went 40 yards by the hole over the green and I got it up-and-down," Gay recalled. "I pitched it back over the bunker to about six feet and made the par putt."

While Gay had some success in 2007 -- eight top-25 finishes in 32 starts and a 76th-place finish in the FedExCup standings, there's still one thing missing from the TOUR resume he's spent many years building.

"I want to win for sure. I've been out here long enough, it's time to win a tournament," he said. "I think it's just confidence and believing in yourself when the time is -- when you're in that moment and coming down on Sundays at the end of a golf tournament, just believing in yourself and staying focused on what you're doing."