Watney leads by one over Glover, Tiger's out
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Nick Watney played poorly last week in Charlotte, but he refused to sulk. Instead, he came to the TPC Sawgrass and got in some early practice, and lo and behold, he leads after the first round of The Players. Watney began his day on the back-nine and after a birdie-birdie-birdie start he double-bogeyed the 14th to drop to minus-1 for the day. Then, he proved this week, at least the first round, was much different than a week ago.In Charlotte, when the wheels started spinning off they didn’t stop and he opened with a 76, then shot 75 on Friday to miss the cut.
On Thursday, Watney followed his double with a birdie at No. 15, then four straight pars, an eagle-birdie-birdie run at 2, 3 and 4, par, then finished with a flurry going birdie-birdie-bogey-birdie for a front-nine 30 and a total of 8 under 64, one off the low first-round score at set by Greg Norman in 1994.
He leads by one over Lucas Glover, last week’s winner of the Wells Fargo Championship. Mark O’Meara and David Toms share third at minus-6, Martin Kaymer, Rory Sabbatini, Graeme McDowell, Alvaro Quiros and Fredrik Jacobson are three back while Davis Love III, J.B. Holmes and Ben Crane are 4 under and trail by four.
In true professional golfer’s fashion, Watney mentioned his mistakes after the round.
“Yeah, I made a double and a bogey, so there's room for improvement,” Watney said. “But overall I felt very much in control. I wish I could have kept going really.
“I mean, I made the double, and it was big for me because last week I was pretty much the opposite of Lucas last week in Charlotte,” he added. “But just to not panic and make a few more birdies after that. It was nice to play a good round even with a mistake.”
Glover is riding a wave of confidence that comes from winning. He has a good amount of momentum on his side right now.
“Yeah, I'm a confidence guy,” Glover said in reference to his being a streaky player. “I think everybody is to some extent. You're confident. Looking up and aiming at the pin with a 3-iron, looking up and aiming somewhere near it, you feel pretty good. It hasn't been that way for a long time.
“I feel good. But any time you win, you get a lot of confidence. If you prepare and do the right things leading up to the week, it should still go your way.”
While things went well for Watney and Glover, it was a big “not so much” for Tiger Woods.
Woods withdrew after his opening nine holes due to injury. He had been recovering from a Grade 1 mild medial collateral ligament sprain to his left knee and a mild strain to his left Achilles tendon after hitting a shot from the pine straw on No. 17 during the third round of The Masters Tournament last month.
The 6 over 42 he shot is his highest nine-hole score at TPC Sawgrass. He previously shot 39 on four occasions.
Woods' withdrawal marks the second consecutive season he has pulled out of The Players. Last year he withdrew from the event after six holes of the final round with a neck injury. The withdrawal marked only the fourth time he has pulled out of a tournament during his career.
Woods said his problems began with his first shot of the day.
“Yeah, the knee acted up and then the Achilles followed after that and then the calf started cramping up,” he said. “Everything started getting tight, so it's just a whole chain reaction.”
His good friend, O’Meara, had a much better result from his play. O’Meara posted his lowest score ever at The Players with his 66. At 54, O’Meara earned his way into the field by virtue of his playoff win at Senior Players Championship last October.
O’Meara was entertaining when he visited the media interview room following his round and spent half his time speaking about Woods.
“My take on it is that he's a great athlete, he's incredibly physically gifted, and he's been battling some injuries and certainly the personal problems that he's had in his life the last year and a half, all those things combined has made it difficult for him to get probably on the golf course where he wants to be,” said O’Meara.
“But in saying that, he seems extremely happy and extremely at ease where he is. I mean, when we had dinner with him last night, my wife and I, he couldn't have been better, and he picked up the check, so that was awesome.
“It's not that often he goes to the hip, so I'm saying to you, he's doing better,” he said, getting a good amount of laughter from the gathered press.
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