Poulter, Laird grab TPC lead
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Nothing should come as a surprise at The Players Championship.
The tournament in which anything can and usually does happen had its share of strange and surreal in the first round Thursday.
Ian Poulter and Martin Laird were atop the leaderboard at 7-under 65. Four players withdrew because of injuries and high scores. Sunghoon Kang opened with a quadruple-bogey 9, followed with eagle-par-birdie and lost four shots over the last four holes. Jerry Kelly made four birdies and shot 82.
And first alternate Brian Harman had to play as a single after a bizarre situation that may have been a first for the PGA Tour.
There was one bit of normalcy: Tiger Woods again failed to break 70 in the opening round. Woods has never broken 70 in his 15 years at the Players. He extended that streak with a sloppy 74 that left him in serious danger of missing the cut for the second straight week. He has only missed eight cuts in his career.
“It certainly wasn’t the most positive start,” Woods said. “Any kind of momentum that I would build, I would shoot myself in the foot on the very next hole. Just one of those days.”
The conditions were ideal for scoring for those hitting it straight and making putts.
Poulter ran off four consecutive birdies around the turn and birdied the par 5s, a key for this golf course. Laird was the only player without a bogey on his card. He made birdie on his final hole to catch Poulter, although his focus was more on his scorecard than the leaderboard.
“I knew I hadn’t made a 5 all day, and that was kind of a little goal I had,” Laird said. “Nothing to do with getting to 7 under. It was, `I don’t want to make a 5 all day.”‘
They were a shot ahead of Blake Adams, with Ben Crane and Kevin Na another shot behind. The 11 players at 68 included Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar, Ben Curtis and FedEx champion Bill Haas. There were 27 players who shot in the 60s, and more than half the field broke par.
Woods was not among them.
