| Castle
Rock, Colorado, 21st August, 1998 - His
confidence is brimming, just what you'd expect from the newly crowned PGA champion.
And Vijay Singh picked up right where he left off last week. Singh
had six birdies and an eagle to share the first-round lead Thursday in the weather-delayed
Sprint International. Four
days after capturing his first major, Singh scored 15 points under the modified
Stableford scoring system used in this unique event, tying journeyman Jim Carter
for the lead. Tiger
Woods, his long game perfectly suited for this course and format, was a point
behind at 14, thanks to a pair of eagles. Corey Pavin, having his best round in
years, was at 13, along with Davis Love III, David Sutherland and Brandt Jobe.
Defending champion
Phil Mickelson finished at 8, and David Duval, the tour's leading money winner,
was at 7. Play
was suspended by lightning at mid-afternoon with half the field still on the course.
After a delay
of 2 hours, 40 minutes, golfers returned to the course, but by nightfall 36 players
had not finished their rounds. Those
golfers completed their rounds early today, and the second round began as scheduled.
Jobe was the
best of the late finishers, and Kirk Triplett and John Riegger each came in with
11 points. Unlike
previous years when players started from scratch each day and there were daily
cuts, points accumulate over all four rounds. Also, the field will be cut to the
low 70 players and ties for Saturday's third round and to the low 36 and ties
for Sunday's final round. Under
a scoring format that awards 5 points for an eagle, 2 points for birdie, zero
for par, minus-1 for bogey and minus-3 for double-bogey or worse, Singh had a
steady round in which he didn't miss a fairway. He
birdied three of his first six holes to get to plus-6, dropped a point with a
bogey at No. 7, then birdied three more holes. He eagled the 492-yard, par-5 17th
hole, hitting a 5-iron approach shot to 10 feet. "I
hit a lot of good tee shots, a lot of good approach shots and putted nicely,''
Singh said. "Winning a major like that, I just wanted to get back on the
golf course and play again. "It's
a good feeling to go out there and know that the confidence from last week is
so high that I could just let it go. I don't worry about the bad shots. The feeling
is good, and you've got to ride it while you can.'' Carter,
a non-winner in seven full seasons on the PGA Tour whose best finish this year
was a tie for third in the Freeport-McDermott Classic in New Orleans, had nine
birdies. Carter
had 11 one-putt greens, including his last eight. He birdied six of those eight
holes and had sand saves on the other two, moving him from plus-3 to plus-15.
"Eleven
one-putts, I could make that a habit,'' he said. "I could be addicted to
that in no time. All in all, it was a nice day.'' He
began his birdie barrage after hitting a ball into the water at No. 10 and taking
double bogey, dropping 3 points. "Maybe
that was a blessing in disguise,'' he said. "Sometimes it takes a mistake
to get you refocused.'' Woods,
playing the 7,559-yard Castle Pines Golf Club for the first time, started on No.
10 and got his first eagle at the par-4 13th, holing out a sand wedge on the fly
from 122 yards. He added 5 more points at the par-5 eighth hole, hitting his 6-iron
second shot, 208 yards away, within 15 feet. Woods
used his driver only three times during his round, saying he is getting enough
distance with a high-trajectory 3-wood that soars at Castle Pines' 6,200-foot
elevation. He did use a driver at No. 1, hitting it 391 yards. Besides
his two eagles, he had four birdies and four bogeys, which would have translated
to a much tamer 68 under normal scoring. "This
format is pretty good,'' he said. "In a stroke-play event, this would be
a tough day.'' Pavin,
the 1995 U.S. Open champion who has been in a slump since winning the Colonial
in 1996, finished 169th on the money list last season and currently is 189th.
"The most
important thing is, I played under control,'' Pavin said. "This is the best
round I've played in a long time.''
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