Hoffman leads as scores soar in windy San Antonio

PGA Tour Valero Texas Open scoreboard http://espn.go.com/golf/leaderboard?tour=pga


Gusty winds are the norm in Texas and Thursday morning was no different at the Valero as a result only 2 players from the morning wave were under par, Matt Kuchar and Camilo Villegas at E.


However the wind died down in the afternoon and scoring improved and in the end it was Charley Hoffman without the trademark long blonde locks who took advantage of the calmer conditions to take the first-round lead shooting a -5 67 over the quiet Christian from Australia Aaron Baddeley -4 68 who had the shot of the day, perhaps the year, when he snap-hooked his drive deep into thick woods on the par 4 17th, went back to play 3 off the tee and holed it from 336 yards !!!


Only 11 players broke par, including Max Homa with a 69, and Phil Mickelson and Ryan Palmer who shot 70's at -2.


Talk about horses for courses, Hoffman has eight top10 finishes in nine appearances in San Antonio. He was second in 2011 and third in 2013.


The stroke average for the morning wave was 78.61 and the overall average was 75.9.
From the 69 players in the morning, 23 failed to break 80. I have seen many rounds played in worse wind at the Open championship, but the problem here is the greens are all perched up so players can't land the ball short and run it up like they do on the links courses in Britain..


Graeme McDowell and 2 others withdrew while shooting high numbers, "citing injuries". McDowell said his left ankle and foot were bothering him was at +5 41 on his first nine. Sang Moon Bae (back) was +6 through seven, and Colt Knost (thumb) was at +9 through eight when they all said enough is enough..




Canadian scoring  David Hearn T122 +9 81  Graham DeLaet T128 +10 82 at the turn while Adam Hadwin T134 +11 83. Mike Weir did not make the start of play saying his forearm was still not right,


Bryan Angus (notes from BBC Reuters and AP)