Incoming hurricane doesn't faze Frazar
EDISON, N.J. — During a delay of nearly three hours, Harrison Frazar had plenty of time to watch the news and see the projected path of a big hurricane that appears headed up the Eastern seaboard toward New Jersey.
On the golf course, he was only concerned about fairways and greens.
He played the opening round at The Barclays without a care, keeping bogeys off his card and making a pair of birdies after the delay for a 7-under 64 that put him atop the leaderboard Thursday.
Matt Kuchar, the defending champion of his opening playoff event, also was at 7 under and had two holes remaining when the first round was halted by darkness. Also at 7 under was William McGirt, the last player to qualify for the 125-man playoffs. He made good use of his opportunity with seven birdies in an eight-hole stretch.
McGirt faced a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 12 when he returned Friday morning to complete the round.
Plainfield Country Club was super soft because of 10 inches of rain the previous two weeks, and more rain Thursday morning. It showed in the scores, with only 25 players over par.
For such good scoring, all the talk was about Hurricane Irene.
“We are all concerned about it, but it doesn’t do us any good,” Frazar said. “It’s not in our power to do anything about it or to worry about it. If they tell us to play golf, we go play golf. If they tell us we are going to speed up and play 36 on Saturday and go home, then we’ll deal with it.”
Frazar won’t have to worry about that.
Slugger White, the PGA Tour’s vice president of competition, ruled out a 36-hole Saturday to beat the wind and rain, if it even makes its way toward the Garden State.
White planned to wait until Friday to get a better idea of the forecast before figuring out what to do. His most immediate concern was for everyone to at least get through nine holes Thursday, which was the case. There are 51 players who have to finish the first round Friday morning.
White is hopeful that the cut can be made Friday evening, and then it’s up in the air. His concern is that Plainfield can’t handle much more rain as soft as it is now.
“If we get 5 or 7 inches of rain here, we are probably dead in the water,” White said.
Vijay Singh birdied his last two holes for a 6-under 65 and was tied with Jonathan Byrd. Adam Scott was in the group at 66. Nick Watney, the No. 1 seed as the race begins for the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus, was among those at 67.
