Atlanta, September 25: American Sean O’Hair got his PGA Tour playoff final off to a rousing start, by shooting a four-under 66 to seize a one-stroke lead over Tiger Woods on Thursday.
O’Hair’s first round of the PGA Tour Championship included six birdies and two bogeys on the East Lake golf course.
Woods, Padraig Harrington and Stewart Cink are tied for second place at three-under 67. Lucas Glover is two shots back of O’Hair at 68.
That is a pretty star-studded pack chasing O’Hair as those four players have captured seven of the last 10 majors.
South Africa’s Retief Goosen is tied with Dustin Johnson and Steve Marino at 69. American Steve Stricker is featured in a seven-way tie at 70.
The top five seeds in the tournament comprise Woods, Stricker, Jim Furyk (72), Heath Slocum (73) and Zach Johnson (70). They control their own destiny as a victory here would earn them the FedEx Cup title and the $10 million bonus that goes with it.
Seventh seed O’Hair can claim the pot-of-gold payout if he wins and Woods and Stricker both finish further back than third. The winner of the tournament also receives $1.35 million in first-place prize money.
“I don’t even know if I’m going to have that opportunity, but if I do have that opportunity, I hope I have like a five-shot lead,” said O’Hair.
The course was in remarkably good shape Thursday despite being lashed by heavy rains in the past week.
“Considering all that rain we had, it’s really dried out, and the greens are like bricks,” said Cink. “You have to be very smart coming into the greens here to give yourself any kind of aggressive birdies.”
After a modest start to the round, Woods stepped it up over his final 10 holes by rolling in four birdies. He two putted from 35 feet at No. 15 for one of those.
“I accomplished my goal of shooting under par for the day,” Woods said.
Firm and fast greens meant the golfers couldn’t be too aggressive with their approach shots.
“It’s really hard to get the ball close unless you drive the ball in the fairway and have a short iron in. If you have a mid-iron in your hand you can’t really go after the flag,” said Woods.
—Agencies