The east, southeast wind at Doral has been blowing through the Miami area all week and is scheduled to continue throughout the weekend. It dominated the story from round 1 at Doral where Adam Scott and Jason Dufner managed it better than the rest of the field to lead at -6 66, 2 shots ahead of Charl Schwartzel and Thomas Bjorn, who was bogey-free at -4 68. Watch out for Thomas this weekend, he is an excellent wind player.
The first hole, downwind par 5 529yds is merely a 350 yd drive and a short iron for these guys, making par was giving the field at least a stroke. Flip the coin to the tough 18th a 467yd par 4 with the huge lake bordering the left, palm trees and heavy rough to the right and the wind blowing at 30kph across the hole, there were more bogeys, double-bogeys and triple-bogeys (a total of 42) than there were pars (30); the stroke average of 4.743 was higher than that for the par-5 first hole (4.743). Only a dozen players managed to break 70, and a dozen more broke par. The average score was 72.7
Charl Schwartzel who hit one of the best drives on 18 that I saw all day played it in driver, 5 iron for a par 4 to stand at -4 68...."That's as tough a wind as you can play it in," he said. "If you bail, you are probably going to make bogey anyway. It's one of those where you have to just take it on. I ran off there with a 4. I'm very happy"
Luke Donald who I watched hit his drive safely to the corner of the dogleg left, but well back picks up the story ""Well, I hit 3-wood into 18, par 4, and I hit 7-iron into the first, which is a par 5. So, obviously, when you get this sort of east, southeast wind, it just plays very tough." He was at -4 coming into the 18th, but hit that 3 wood into the pond , made double to end up -2 70, which was the best of the big 3 pairing, Lee Westwood made bogey on his first 3 holes (9-11), fought back but ended up at +4 76, while our new #1, Rory McIlroy said he felt flat, but still got around in +1 73 with you guessed it, birdie at the first, bogey at the last .
Tiger, who has won this event 6 times, started with an eagle on the first, also made bogey on 18, like all the guys had trouble pulling the right club and also three-putted twice, but battled around in his very smart all black with white belt shoes and hat outfit, to par 72, 6 shots back, and Phil Mickelson is also at E 72 with a double, 2 bogey's and 4 birdies, and a par on 18 !!..
What a round, or should I say finish for Sergio. He was one shot out of the lead at -5 through 12 holes. He didn't hit a fairway the rest of the way, nor did he make so much as a par. He followed five straight bogeys by hitting two shots into the water on the 18th and taking triple bogey. Over that six-hole stretch, Garcia went from being -5 to +3,75
Steve Stricker was at -6 at one point until he made bogey at 13, 17 and 18 summed it up..The course is playable," he said. "You can see it in the scores. It's still playable, whether we have this wind or not, so it's manageable out there, and you just have to play hard and play well."
live scoring at WGC Cadillac Championship http://www.worldgolfchampionships.com/leaderboards/current/r473/index.html
The pairings remain the same for Friday, except they flip nines, so the guys who started on 10 Thursday, start on 1 Friday with that downwind par 5.
round 2 tee times http://www.worldgolfchampionships.com/tournaments/r473/tee-times.html
While all eyes are on the WGC at Doral, the rest of the guys are at the Puerto Rico Open including 3 Canucks, Graham Delaet T8 -3 69, Stephen Ames T83 +2 74 and Matt McQuillan T127, +7 79.
The leaders at -6 66 are Matt Jones of Australia and George McNeil from the States..
live scoring at the Puerto Rico Open click http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboards/current/r483/
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles and at http://www.isr1050.com/
(with notes from pgatour.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment