DiMarco & Atwal take opening honours

Chris DiMarco got off to a fast start in his first event since losing the Masters in a playoff, shooting a season-best 7-under 65 on Thursday for a share of the first-round lead in the Zurich Classic.

India's Arjun Atwal also opened with a 65, birdieing six of his final nine holes on the TPC of Louisiana, the Pete Dye-designed course in its first year as the tournament site after 16 years at English Turn.

DiMarco, coming off the emotional first-hole loss to Tiger Woods three weeks ago at Augusta National, had a bogey-free round in swirling wind gusts.

"As long as I'm hitting the ball as solid as I'm hitting it, it really doesn't matter if you play in the wind or not,'' DiMarco said. "My irons are very crisp and when you hit crisp iron shots the wind doesn't affect them as much.''

DiMarco, who started the round on No. 10, had three birdies on the first nine holes. He got to 4-under with a birdie on No. 1, made five straight pars, and holed a 20-foot eagle putt on the par-5 seventh. He closed the round with a birdie on No. 9.

"You just got to know where to miss it on this golf course,'' DiMarco said. "You got to know which side you can get up and down from and not try to be real aggressive. I had the luxury of being a couple under par and not having to go for certain pins.''

Atwal, who lost a playoff last month in the BellSouth Classic, said he concentrated on his putting.

"I just tried to make pars because it was so windy,'' Atwal said. "Then I got things going on the front nine.''

Defending champion Vijay Singh was in a group at 67.

Opening on the back nine, Singh had two bogeys and three birdies to make the turn at 1-under. He bogeyed No. 1 then had birdies on Nos. 2, 6 and 7.

Singh had an eagle on the par-3 eighth, with a 339-foot drive and a 30-yard chip to go to 6-under. He three-putted No. 9, however, for a final bogey.

"I had a lot of long putts that I couldn't judge,'' Singh said. "I three-putted four times. Long putts are hard for me to do the way the wind is blowing.''

After three weeks away from the tour, DiMarco showed no sign of being rusty.

"No, because when I went home for two weeks I played a lot of golf,'' he said.

J.J. Henry, Tom Pernice Jr. and Tim Clark also shot 67s.

"My putter was the key today,'' Pernice said. "I haven't putted well this year.''

With the move to the year-old TPC of Louisiana, players such as Henry, who did not play in the pro-am, had just one round of practice before the start of play Thursday.

"I looked at it as, `Hey, everybody is kind of in the same boat,''' Henry said. "It's a golf course that's not one that you're going to be where you can't sleep the night before. There's no hole that jumps out, where you're really sweating it out.''

Even before he teed off, DiMarco insisted that he was more than ready to play again.

"To beat the field by seven shots at that tournament [the Masters] ? it just was awesome to be able to go perform like that,'' he said. "I feel like I really kind of elevated my game and hopefully moved to a new level.''

The grit and determination DiMarco showed at the Masters and won the crowd over. His performance also won over people everywhere he goes.

"I don't think I can remember the last time where I have been congratulated so many times for losing,'' DiMarco said.

The duel with Woods was enthralling.

When DiMarco went from a four-shot lead to a three-shot deficit to Woods, everyone thought he was finished. But DiMarco refused to back down, making par on the last two holes to force the playoff.

"It just shows that I've got guts,'' DiMarco said. "I know that if I dig deep enough, you know what, I can push away the fears, and I can push away the bad thoughts, and I could just go ahead and play golf.''

Looking back, DiMarco had regrets, but none came from the way he played.

"I'm still disappointed I didn't bring the green jacket home,'' he said. "But like I said, his chip went in and my chip didn't go it. If it's reversed, it's the other way around. I can look back and truly tell myself that I did everything in my power to win that golf tournament. I just got beat.''

DiMarco believes the experience will change his game for the better. He knows it's changed his life.

"I used to be able to go into Target, I used to be able to go to the grocery store, I used to be able to go to the bowling alley, and kind of have my anonymity,'' DiMarco said. "It's not quite there anymore.

"It goes with it. I'm quite honored to tell you the truth, to have that many people actually care that much about me not winning.''

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