Bet on this tournament & other sports here

Azinger takes early honours with 66

Paul Azinger carded a bogey-free round of six-under-par 66 to grab a one-stroke lead after Thursday's first round of The Players Championship. Vijay Singh, Scott Hoch and Jonathan Kaye share second place at five-under, while Robert Allenby, Billy Mayfair and Skip Kendall stand two shots off the pace at minus-four.

Brad Elder, Jerry Kelly, Jim Carter and Scott Verplank each turned in 69s to finish the day at three-under, one shot ahead of 10 others including Jesper Parnevik and former Players Championship winners Nick Price and Tom Kite.

Fred Couples, the victor here in 1984 and again in 1996, heads a list of 15 players to open with 71s. Tom Lehman, Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie are also at one-under par.

Tiger Woods, who overcame problems hooking the ball to capture last week's Bay Hill Invitational, found no friendly lies to the left of the last hole on Thursday. The world's top-ranked player drove his tee shot into the water that hugs the 18th fairway to finish with a double-bogey six and an even-par 72 at the TPC at Sawgrass.

Defending champion Hal Sutton, who beat Woods by one stroke for the title last year, also shot 72.

Paul Azinger celebrates a birdie on the 9th. Allsport.

Azinger got off to a quick start when he holed a 25-foot putt at the opening hole for the first of three straight birdies. He added another three-birdie spurt around the turn, beginning with a 30-footer at eight.

After his sand wedge to four feet set up a birdie at the par-five ninth, Azinger hit his drive at 10 into a fairway bunker. But he managed to hit a nine-iron out of the sand to 15 feet for the last of his birdies, then made his way through the fearsome closing stretch with eight consecutive pars.

The low-ball hitting Azinger felt the rain that inundated the area at the beginning of the week helped him hold more greens and fairways in round one.

"The fairways are soft enough that it was a little easier maybe to keep the ball on the fairway," Azinger said. "There was a little mud on the ball, but that will all change. It's going to get harder, I'm sure, as we go.

"I played here the year [David] Duval won and the year Lee Janzen won. Those two years, the course was just so hard; I didn't fix a ball mark even in the practice rounds, the greens were so hard. That favored a certain type of player, and that wasn't me."

The highlight of Azinger's tie for 17th here last season was undoubtedly his hole-in-one on the infamous island green at the 137- yard, par-three 17th. Although no players aced the short but frightening hole on Thursday, a total of 19 suffered a watery demise. The hole yielded 23 birdies, 94 pars, 12 bogeys and 10 double-bogeys, while three wound up filed in the dreaded "other" category.

Singh, who started on the back nine, was going the wrong way on the leaderboard when he missed a 10-foot putt to save par at the 13th. He got back to even with a birdie at the day's easiest hole, the par- five 16th, then knocked a seven-iron to six feet for birdie at the hole that ranked the toughest -- the 447-yard, par-four 18th.

Singh's birdie at the par-five second was followed by a 35-foot putt for another at the third. He ended up eight feet from the pin with a four-iron to 219-yard eighth, then backed up that birdie with a final one at the ninth to post a five-under 67.

"I hit the ball really good off the tee. I think that was the key to my round," said Singh, who hit 13 of 14 fairways Thursday. "I did hit a bad drive on nine. It hit the tree and came back on the fairway. That was a lucky break there."

Singh is one of several players in the field who live in the Ponte Vedra area. Known for his tireless practice regimen, Singh is more familiar with facilities at the Sawgrass resort than with its flagship Stadium course.

"I use the range a lot," he said. "I don't go out on the course as much as I should, but when I'm at home, I'm here almost every day."

Email this page to a friend | Return to top of page