Friday, November
1, 2002
Singh, Lowery handle
the cold wind
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
ATLANTA (AP) - Vijay
Singh hit a 5-wood within 8 inches of a hole-in-one on East Lake's
tough finishing hole Thursday, giving him a 5-under 65 and a share
of the lead with Steve Lowery after the first round of the Tour
Championship.
Singh's score wasn't
as good as the course-record 63 he had four years ago in the first
round of the season-ending tournament, but he had no complaints
_ especially with his finish.
The 232-yard hole
is uphill and played into a cold, stiff breeze.
"I didn't know
if I could get there," Singh said. "I hit it dead straight,
hard and hoped. And it went dead straight, hard and I stuck it."
It was one of only
two birdies at the par-3 18th. The other belonged to Charles Howell,
who had a 66 in his Tour Championship debut.
Scores figured to
be low because of heavy rains in the Atlanta area, and because
the PGA Tour's best 30 players were allowed to lift, clean and
place their balls in the fairway. That was the cause of low scoring
on tour the last two weeks.
Cold, swirling winds
kept it challenging through a sunny day, and made it particularly
frustrating for Tiger Woods.
His 3-iron into the
18th came up 80 feet short, and he missed a 6-foot par putt. That
gave him a 71, the first time in 21 rounds he has failed to break
par dating to his 81 in the third round of the British Open.
Worse yet was his
7-iron from 162 yards on the par-3 sixth that bounced off the
back of the green and into the lake and led to his first double
bogey since the third round of the Buick Open, ending a streak
of 328 holes with nothing worse than a bogey.
"I got fooled,"
Woods said.
Woods played with
Phil Mickelson, No. 2 in the world and on the PGA Tour money list,
for the first time this year. Mickelson didn't fare much better,
making bogeys on two of the last three holes for an even-par 70.
The last time Woods
and Mickelson played together was believed to be the final round
of the 2001 Masters, when Woods won his fourth straight major.
The round began with
laughter.
The starter was reading
off all five of Woods' victories on the PGA Tour this year when
Mickelson playfully cut her off.
"All right,
all right," Mickelson said, acting as though he had heard
enough.
Neither produced
flawless golf, although it was entertaining. Woods made a 15-foot
birdie from the collar of the rough on No. 5 by using his 3-wood,
a two-stroke swing when Mickelson flubbed a flop shot into the
rough and made bogey.
Lefty came back with
a three-shot swing on No. 6 when he holed a 15-foot birdie putt
after Woods hit his tee shot into the water.
Lowery's excitement
came even before he teed off.
He missed the cut
last week in the Buick Challenge and worried that he might not
even qualify for the Tour Championship. He wound up dropping only
one spot on the money list to No. 29, came to East Lake and then
shot a 60 during the soggy pro-am Tuesday.
"I shot 29 on
the back and 31 on the front," Lowery said of the pro-am.
"I shot 31 on the front again, but I could not find that
29 today."
Still, it was good
enough for a 65, a good start for one of six players in the field
still searching for their first PGA Tour victory this year.
Singh already won
in Houston, but he has a score to settle with East Lake.
He was poised to
win the Tour Championship in 1998 until his tee shot on the 72nd
hole went over the green and into thick rough, leading to a bogey.
Hal Sutton beat him on the first playoff hole.
"It took me
a while to get over that one, especially the shot I hit on 18,"
Singh said. "I would like to win this event, especially,
and on this golf course, because I've had two good finishes. We'll
see on Sunday what happens."
Singh and Howell
were the only players without a bogey at East Lake.
Howell looked like
he might stumble on 17 until he two-putted from 65 feet, holing
a 7-footer for par. He hit 2-iron to the 18th and made a 20-foot
birdie putt.
"The two-putt
at 17 was more important than the birdie at 18," Howell said.
"It was really tough to read that putt with all the shadows.
We might have taken three minutes to read that putt and I still
didn't get it exactly right."
Fred Funk had a 67,
while Shigeki Maruyama had 68 despite bogeys on his last two holes
and that he hadn't played in six weeks because of a shoulder injury.
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