Honda Classic
Tournament Players Club
Heron Bay,
Coral Springs, Florida
12th - 15th March 1998

Par 72 Prize Money $1.8 million

First Round Report

First Round Scores

Maggert opens up a one-shot lead

Coral Springs, Florida, 12th March 1998 - Jeff Maggert, who has missed the cut in his last two events, fired a 5-under-par 67 today (Thursday) to grab a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the $1.8 million Honda Classic at the TPC at Heron Bay in Coral Springs, Florida.

Maggert, winless since collecting his only victory at the 1993 Walt Disney World Classic, holed a 7-iron from 185 yards for an eagle on the par-4 sixth hole and added five birdies to offset a pair of bogeys. He is one shot ahead of John Daly and Stewart Cink.

Former champion Steve Pate and Colin Montgomerie of Scotland are two strokes back after shooting 3-under 69s. Sixteen players carded 70s and are three behind Maggert, including defending champion Stuart Appleby of Australia, Tom Watson, 1987 champion Mark Calcavecchia, Vijay Singh of Fiji and Bernhard Langer of Germany.

The victory by Appleby was his first on the PGA Tour and helped him become just the first Q-School graduate to earn more than $1 million the following year.

Watson, playing his third 1998 tournament, has been a runner-up at the other two. He tied for second at the Phoenix Open, was second at the Hawaiian Open and shares the lead at the suspended Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Singh appears poised to extend the PGA's longest current streak of consecutive cuts made to 51.

Michael Bradley, who won last week's Doral-Ryder Open and was a runner-up here last year, withdrew Wednesday due to an ailing back.

Tiger Woods and red-hot Billy Mayfair are not entered.

The par-72 Tournament Players Club measures 7,268 yards.

First prize is $324,000.