In a windy, wacky start
to the new season, Jesper Parnevik made a bogey and two double bogeys on the
back nine today, caught grief for his bright red pants and still managed to lead
after the first round of the Mercedes Championships.
There was also a degree
of normalcy. Tiger Woods played as though last year never ended, a sight even
more fearsome than the vicious trade winds raging off the northeast coast of
Maui.
After nearly holing a 100-foot
shot with his putter from off the 18th green, Parnevik tapped in for a birdie
that capped a roller coaster round and gave him a 4-under-par 69 on the Plantation
Course at Kapalua, one stroke ahead of Duffy Waldorf.
Woods, trying to become
the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win five straight tournaments, had
a 2-under 71, tied with Ernie Els. Defending champion David Duval birdied the
last two holes and was another stroke back.
Woods capped the 1999 season
by winning the last four PGA Tour events and finishied in seventh place or better
in 13 out of his last 14 tournaments. It didn't take long for him to make his
presence felt at Kapalua.
"He has to screw up pretty
bad not to be up on the leaderboard," Parnevik said. "He doesn't have to do everything
right to win. And when he does everything right, he runs away with it."
Everything went right --
and then everything went wrong -- for Parnevik. On a day in which the average
score was 75.03 because of 40 mph gusts and severe grain in the Bermuda greens,
Parnevik birdied six of the first 11 holes to open a four-shot lead.
"And then the fun began,"
he said.
He missed the 12th green
and three-putted for double bogey, then missed the green and dumped a chip shot
into the bunker for another double bogey on the 13th. Parnevik birdied the next
two holes to right the ship, just in time to chunk a wedge on No. 17 that led
to a bogey.
An official on the 18th
green announced Parnevik as wearing "the wild red pants," not uncommon for the
most eccentric dresser in golf. But that only prompted a shout from the gallery.
"If you knock it in the
hole, we don't care what color pants you wear," someone shouted.
Parnevik's putt veered
some 20 feet to the left once it reached the green and grazed the cup, giving
him his ninth birdie of the day and a one-shot lead.
By that account, Woods
was downright boring.
Wearing his cap backwards
at times to keep it from blowing off, Woods rarely found trouble on the wide-open
fairways and only the tricky grain on the greens kept him from gaining more ground.
He missed eight birdie putts from 15 feet or in.
But then, any round under
par was a good day.
Only eight players managed
to break par, a stark contrast from the first round last year when only three
of the 30 players in the winners-only field failed to break par.
Rich Beem had a 46 on the
back for an 84, while Andersen Consulting Match Play champion Jeff Maggert and
Ted Tryba also had to sign for a score of 80 or worse.
Waldorf's only bogey came
on No. 13, when his 5-iron from 175 yards wound up 50 yards short. Then he crushed
a sand wedge that the wind blew back with such force that it hit a bunker and
still hopped back out of the sand.
"I never thought I was
going to get to the hole," he said.
Indeed, if Parnevik didn't
already wear a hat with the bill flipped up, the trade winds would have taken
care of that.
As whitecaps swept across
the Pacific Ocean below and tree limbs appeared to be on the verge of snapping,
it was all the elite field could do to hang on. And these conditions are typical
of Kapalua.
"If this is a normal wind
and I had this to play, I'd quit," Hal Sutton said after a 4-over 77. "I couldn't
stand up. I don't know what the skinny people were doing."
Brad Faxon hit a full 9-iron
65 yards into the wind on the par-5 ninth. He hit the same club 190 yards on
the downwind 17th.
"That's a little difference,"
he said after a 72.
The biggest difference
was on the greens, where players found it impossible to stand still over their
putts. Duval backed off three times from a 4-foot birdie attempt at No. 6, gazing
at the swaying trees and offering a silent plea that it calm down.
It didn't, and he missed
the putt.
Faxon, considered one of
the best putters on tour, made all three of his bogeys with three-putts. When
was the last time that happened?
"I was thinking about that,"
he said. "On 17, I started thinking it's probably not a good idea to start thinking
about that."
