It took Notah
Begay five holes to warm up in the whipping wind and 50-degree temperatures that
welcomed the PGA Tour to usually sunny and warm Kingsmill for today's first round
of the Michelob Championship.
But even playing in the morning, when it was downright frigid, Begay got as warm
as anyone with a 4-under-par 67 that gave him a share of the lead.
Corey Pavin and Robin Freeman
also shot 67s, both playing in the afternoon when the sun emerged and pushed the
temperature into the low to mid-60s.
"If
you look at the scoreboard, everyone is struggling," said Begay, the only one
to reach 5-under before a bogey 5 at the 460-yard ninth, his final hole.
"When you have players
of this caliber not able to shoot low scores and the greens are that receptive,
you know the conditions must be windy with swirling winds and gusty, and a little
cold, too," the former Nike Tour player said.
He wasn't kidding. In an event once notorious for being played in oppressive summertime
heat, the conditions helped push scores higher than ever -- almost.
At 67, the leaders had the highest score for first-day pace-setters since 1981,
the first year of the tournament at Kingsmill, when Bob Gilder's 68 led.
Pavin thought the morning
players had probably earned their scores more.
"It
looked like it was pretty tough this morning, judging from what the scores were,"
he said. "It makes you relax a little bit. You know you don't have to go out and
make a ton of birdies or anything. You know par is a good score."
Pavin made 14 of those, including eight straight to start his round, and had four
birdies in a bogey-free trip over the 6,853-yard River Course layout.
"A lot of times you come here
and 8-under is on the board," Pavin said. "You may have a thought of how the golf
course is going to play on Tuesday or Wednesday, but until the tournament starts,
you never really know."
Freeman was even after 13 holes, then took the advice sports psychologist Bob
Rotella had given him before the round and stopped trying to make putts.
"I just freed up, just
let it go," Freeman said. "I didn't care if it went in. I decided on the back
nine just not to try ... and some of them went in."
Freeman made four straight birdies beginning on the 14th hole, sinking putts of
5, 2, 15 and 25 feet in succession. He could have -- and should have -- had six
in a row, but missed a 6-footer on the 12th hole and an 8-footer on the 13th.
"I could have had a really
good round," he said. "If there's any way I can stop thinking for another three
rounds, I'll hopefully be in great shape."
Ted Tryba, who earned his first career victory here in 1995, was tied for fourth
at 68 with Robert Allenby. Six others finished at 2-under 69.
"I
didn't expect to come here and play in 50-degree weather or 40-degree weather
or whatever it was," he said. "It makes it tough to be free out there and play
the way you want to, so you just have to get by, hit enough good shots."
Two-time defending champion
David Duval, trying to become the first player in tournament history to win three
years in a row, got to 3-under late in his round, then double-bogeyed the 413-yard
eighth, his 17th hole of the round.
"I
shot 1-under. Didn't finish the way I would have liked, but a pretty decent day,"
said Duval, one of 12 golfers at 70. "I hit some bad ones coming in."
The group also included 1996 champion Scott Hoch, Lee Janzen and Nick Faldo.
Divots: Curtis Strange,
who lives at Kingsmill and is the unofficial host, had an 11-over 82 that included
a triple-bogey on the par-3 fifth. Of the 156 players who started, only Ron Cooke
of Gaineville, Va., was worse, at 88. ... Clark Dennis (73) aced the par-3 second
hole and John Elliott (69) aced the 17th. Elliott immediately gave both shots
back with a double-bogey on No. 18. ... Al Geiberger is the only one of five players
to have shot 59 in a professional tournament not playing here this weekend. The
others are Begay, who did it last year in a Nike Tour event in Richmond; Duval,
who did it this year to win the Bob Hope Classic; Chip Beck (75) and Doug Dunakey
(74), who did it last season on the Nike Tour.
