The Honda Classic, Round 1
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
CONNELL TIES FOR LEAD (6:23 p.m.): Michael Connell just parred the 18th hole to end his day tied for the lead with Nathan Green at 5 under. Connell took just 24 putts on the day -- tied for best in the field -- which is obviously a big reason why the journeyman was able to shoot 65. He also eagled the par-5 third hole after hitting it to 9 feet from 256 yards. -- Brian Wacker
CONNELL MAKING A LATE CHARGE (6:10 p.m.): The first round is barely going to finish before it gets dark -- the pace of play has been around 5 hours in the afternoon -- but not before Michael Connell has a shot to take the lead.
Connell is currently tied for the lead at 5 under with the par-5 18th to come. Prior to this year. Connell hasn't even played in PGA TOUR or Nationwide Tour event since 2006, but he has a better resume than you might think. prior to getting his card via a tie for 19th at q-school last year, Connell was the 2002 Player of the Year on the Hooters Tour and a two-time All-America selection at Mississippi State, where he was the 1997 SEC Player of the Year. -- Brian Wacker
VILLEGAS IN WITH A 66 (5:50 p.m.): Maybe it's the RedBull, because Camilo Villegas had enough energy to reach the par-5 18th hole in two from 291 yards, setting up a closing birdie to get him within one shot of the lead. In fairness, the hole is playing downwind, but the birdie caps what's been a whirlwind few weeks for Villegas, who, as mentioned earlier, didn't even arrive in Palm Beach Gardens until last night following a Tuesday pro-am, among other festivities, at this week's Nationwide Tour even in his native Colombia.
Villegas closed strong, though, shooting a 32 on the back nine at PGA National, where the field is averaging 37 over the final nine holes.
"I stayed patient all day," Villegas told GOLF CHANNEL afterward. "It was blowing the first 12, 13 holes, but then it calmed down a little."
As for his trip to Colombia for the Nationwide Tour event, Villegas called it awesome and said he had a chance to talk to a lot of players and a lot of Americans. "They're going to enjoy my country," Villegas said. "It's a beautiful place." -- Brian Wacker
Below is a look at Villegas' scorecard from Thursday. Click here to replay his round with Shot Tracker.
ROUND 1 WINDING DOWN (5:33 p.m.): The first round is starting to wind down with the final groups on the 15th hole. Overall, it's been a day of relatively high winds and high scores with 32 players under par at the moment. Fourteen of those players, though, are only at 1 under.
In case you're wondering, the highest start by a winner of this tournament was a 73 by Padraig Harrington in 2005. The highest winning score was 1-under 287 by Kenny Knox in 1986 at TPC Eagle Trace. Below is a look at more numbers in Honda Classic history. -- Brian Wacker
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CAMILO MAKING A LATE CHARGE (5:03 p.m.): It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks for Camilo Villegas. It began with six matches at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, followed by four rounds in Phoenix and a quick trip to his native Bogota, Colombia, for the Tuesday pro-am of the Nationwide Tour's Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open. And that was before he arrived in Palm Beach Gardens late last night for today's afternoon tee time.
Despite the combined 191 holes of golf -- 101 at the Match Play Championship, 72 at the Waste Management Open and 18 for Tuesday's pro-am -- and multiple time zones, Villegas is faring just fine Thursday with four birdies and just one bogey with two holes left in his round. He's also missed just two fairways and taken 22 putts through 16 holes. That has him just two off the lead right now late in the opening round. -- Brian Wacker
YANG NEAR THE BOTTOM (4:50 p.m.) At this rate, Y.E. Yang's stay at PGA National is going to be a short one. Since making a 9 on his second hole of the day, Yang has fallen to 9 over through 14 holes with four bogeys, a double bogey, that quintuple bogey and two birdies. That has him just one spot out of last place as he's a stroke ahead of Jeff Maggert. -- Brian Wacker
FOWLER STRUGGLING (4:23 p.m.): The last time Rickie Fowler played the Champions Course at PGA National before this week was at a junior event in which he lost in a playoff.
The memories might not get much better this week. Fowler is 2 over through his first 10 holes with four bogeys and two birdies. Two of those bogeys came on Nos. 10 and 11 for Fowler -- his first two holes of the day. He did bounce back, though with birdies on Nos. 14 and 17, the second of which you can see in the video on the left. -- Brian Wacker
HARDEST HOLES (4:05 p.m.): The 15th, 16th and 17th holes get plenty of attention with the Bear Trap moniker (and No. 16 is also this week's Kodak Challenge hole). But the hardest holes on the golf course right now are Nos. 11 and 1, respectively.
Just ask Davis Love III. He made a triple bogey on No. 10, his first hole of the day. Or D.J. Trahan. He bogeyed both holes.
"That's an unbelievable par-4," said Trahan of the nearly 500-yard long 10th, where the wind is into the players' faces from the right. "That's a tough drive any day when the wind is not blowing, never mind 25."
Currently, the 436-yard par-4 11th is playing to a scoring average of 4.545 with 23 double bogeys or worse, compared to just 12 birdies. The 10th hole, meanwhile, is playing to an average of 4.464 with seven double bogeys or worse, compared to eight birdies. -- Brian Wacker
DAY IS DONE (3:50 p.m.): Joining Rich Beem on the WD list is Jason Day. The Aussie withdrew after five holes because of Bronchitis. Day was 2 over at the time with a bogey, a birdie and a double bogey. -- Brian Wacker
FOLLOW THE LEADER (3:40 p.m.): If Nathan Green's lead holds up, it will be just the second time in his career that he's held an opening-round lead (the 2008 Valero Texas Open was the other). That's sort of a good news/bad news situation here.
The good news is that there have been wire-to-wire winners at The Honda Classic. The bad news is the last time it happened was in 2003 with Justin Leonard. Also, the first-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win in just two of eight stroke-play events this year. The last to do it was Dustin Johnson at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. -- Brian Wacker
ADVANTAGE, MORNING (3:15 p.m.): With the exception of a few players, not many are going low in the afternoon here at The Honda Classic, where the afternoon wind is up and so are the scores.
Case in point: Nathan Green's 65 and Alexandre Rocha's 66 came in the morning wave. So did the 67s of D.J. Trahan, Bubba Watson and Vijay Singh. Right now, Jonathan Byrd and Paul Casey are among the few in the afternoon with a realistic chance of catching Green -- they're both 3 under with most if not all of the back nine still to play. -- Brian Wacker
As for just how difficult the Champions Course is playing? The stroke average is currently 72.648, or more than 2 1/2 strokes over par, with the back nine playing more than 1 1/2 strokes harder than the front nine. -- Brian Wacker
FLORIDA ... AND SERGIO GARCIA (2:40 p.m.) -- The Florida swing's emphasis on ball-striking is evident: the state's best courses are known for tight fairways and small greens.
It's a certain style of play that evolves from the state's use of land -- many of the courses have a limited amount of acreage to work with, and as a result, courses are built with a heavy emphasis on tee-to-green play. PGA National's Champion Course is a classic example, and one would assume that these setups would play right into the hands of Sergio Garcia.
Case in point: Garcia led the field in greens in regulation at The Honda Classic in 2009, hitting 77 percent of the greens.
Garcia's ability to hit it 285 yards and straight, coupled with his world-class iron play, puts him at an advantage on Florida courses, but the Spaniard is struggling on Thursday, as he started his round with two bogeys and a double bogey in his first five holes.
Garcia, tied for 13th here a year ago, but he would have finished much higher had he scared the hole more on the greens (he had more than 30 putts in all four rounds). -- Ryan Smithson
GREEN ON HIS 65 (2:15 p.m.): Growing up on the coast in Australia, playing in the wind has never really bothered Nathan Green. That showed today in his round of 65 to take the early lead.
"The greens here this week, I don't think they are as fast as they have been in the past, too," Green said. "A lot of my best rounds have come in windy conditions. It probably doesn't bother me and I'm not worried about it as much as some other people might be.
"It's one of those courses you have to be patient. Everything sort of went right for me today."
And even when they weren't, like on No. 8, where Green made a 30-footer for birdie, the result was still there.
"I hit one of those putts that you sort of do on days like today," Green said. "You hit with the wrong line and wrong speed and went straight in the middle; thought it was going to go left-to-right, blocked it a foot and went right in the middle." -- Brian Wacker
YANG STRUGGLING (1:45 p.m.): The chances of Y.E. Yang successfully defending his title this week are somewhere between slim and none, and slim may have just left the building.
Yang, who teed off on the back nine, bogeyed his first hole of the day then made a mess of No. 11, where he made a quintuple-bogey 9. Yang hit two approach shots into the water on the 436-yard par-4 before three-putting from 35 feet, which included a miss from inside 5 feet.
That put Yang at 6 over ... through two holes. He did, however, bounce back with a birdie on the par-4 12th, where he rolled in a putt from just inside 18 feet.
Yang, by the way, is playing this week with a muscle tear in his back and said that he's using lots of thermapads and receiving massage treatment for it. -- -- Brian Wacker
QUALIFIER CHALLENGING FOR LEAD (1:35 p.m.): Who is Alexandre Rocha? He's a Brazilian who plays on the European Tour who Monday qualified for The Honda Classic. He's also just a shot off the lead with a round of 4 under going.
Rocha played in 19 European Tour events last year -- though he hasn't played in any so far this season -- with a season-best finish of a tie for 28th at the Open de Andalucia de Golf. He last played in a PGA TOUR event in 2003 at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, where he missed the cut with rounds of 81 and 70. Rocha also played in three Nationwide Tour events that year, missing the cut in two of them. -- Brian Wacker
GREEN GRABS CLUBHOUSE LEAD (1:05 p.m.): Nathan Green had 11 one-putts and missed just three fairways in a five-birdie, no-bogey round of 65. That's good enough for the clubhouse lead right now and could be for the day given an expected increase in the wind this afternoon.
Green, who won last year's RBC Canadian Open in a playoff over Retief Goosen, comes into The Honda Classic having missed two of his last three cuts, but had the putter working Thursday. He was 16-for-16 on putts inside 10 feet and also rolled in a 30-footer for birdie on No. 8.
Those numbers aren't hugely surprising for Green -- he ranked fourth and eighth, respectively, in putting on TOUR in 2008 and 2007. -- Brian Wacker
Below is a look at Green's scorecard from today. Click here to replay his round with Shot Tracker.
SHORT STAY (12:50 p.m.): Rich Beem has withdrawn with a shoulder injury. Beem, who tied for 14th in Phoenix last week, struggled to a 78 that included a 41 on the back nine. -- Brian Wacker
BEAR TRAP STRIKES (12:40 p.m.): The Bear Trap -- Nos. 15, 16 and 17 -- has already started to claim a few victims today. The latest was Anthony Kim, who fell from the lead after a double bogey on the par-3 17th.
Kim's tee shot on the 188-yard hole sailed over the back bunker and he left his next shot coming back toward the water in the bunker. From there, Kim hit it to 4 feet, 8 inches, but missed the bogey putt before tapping in.
So far, the par-3 15th hole is playing the toughest of the group as the sixth-most difficult on the course. The 17th currently ranks eighth and the par-4 16th 10th. -- Brian Wacker
NO LOVE FOR DAVIS (12:20 p.m.): It was a rough start for Davis Love III this morning. His first shot of the day, which came on No. 10, went OB. He finished with a triple bogey. Two birdies and three bogeys later and Love made the turn in 39 before finishing his round in 74.
Two of Love's four bogeys came in the Bear Trap, where he missed a 5-footer for par on the par-3 15th and missed a 6-footer for par on the par-3 17th. -- Brian Wacker
GOING GREEN (12 p.m.): Nathan Green has moved to the top of the leaderboard for the moment thanks to a clean 14 holes in which he's made four birdies, zero bogeys and missed just two fairways. Green, who tied for eighth at the Sony Open in Hawaii before missing his last two cuts, also has eight one-putts. -- Brian Wacker
A.K. AND ALLENBY (11:35 a.m.): One of the more interesting groups today? The one that includes Robert Allenby and Anthony Kim. It's the second time the two have been paired together since last year's Presidents Cup controversy in which Allenby was critical of Kim's off-course behavior.
"[What was said] bothered me because of how it affected my mom and dad," Kim said earlier this week. "I've taken a step back, though, to try to take two steps forward. I took a lot of things for granted the first couples of years. It came pretty easy. But I've worked hard and I want to have a positive attitude on the course."
So far, those changes seem to be taking hold, even if only in bits and pieces for Kim. He followed a third-round 76 last week with a final-round 67 and today is 3 under through the first 13 holes and tied for the lead.
Allenby? He's 2 over. -- Brian Wacker
TRAHAN GOING BACKWARDS (11:20 a.m.): So much for D.J. Trahan's fast start. Since making the turn in 31, he's given two shots back with bogeys on Nos. 10 and 11, two of the most difficult holes on the course.
Don't expect any scoring records to fall here, either. None of the tournaments major records were set at PGA National's Champions Course, which has been the tournament home since 2007. The course record for this course is a 64 by Luke Donald in 2008. -- Brian Wacker
TOUGH TRACK (11 a.m.): The wind has been blowing pretty hard -- in the 20-mph range -- all week at PGA National and today is no exception. Not that it affected D.J. Trahan much, at least on the front nine. He made the turn in 31 with birdies on four of his last five holes, though he did give one back with a bogey at No. 10.
Other than Trahan, only 14 other players are under par here in the early stages of the opening round. That can also be attributed to the difficulty of the Champions Course at PGA National. The latter is also a big part of why the field is so strong.
"I'm pleasantly surprised at the field," Paul Casey said Wednesday. "It's stacked with the world's best."
That includes four of the top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings with Lee Westwood (No. 6), Casey (No. 6), Rory McIlroy (No. 9) and Padraig Harrington (No. 10). Anthony Kim, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els, Camilo Villegas and Rickie Fowler are also among those in the field.
Westwood, in fact, only added this tournament to his schedule at the suggestion of his agent. "He came here last year when Ernie was defending I think and Rory played and he said, 'Why aren't you here? This golf course would suit you down to a tee.'"
Westwood asked for an invite last year and had it on his schedule ever since. So far, so good -- Westwood is 2 under with five holes left in his round. -- Brian Wacker
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