US Open champion Retief Goosen was the only winner on a rain-marred first day of the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth on Thursday, crushing Jeff Maggert by a record 12 and 11.
Goosen's margin of victory exceeded the old record in the 36-hole matches of 11 and 10 when Mark O'Meara beat Vijay Singh in the second round in 1998.
Because of a 2 1/2-hour rain delay at the start of the day, seven of the eight matches were suspended by darkness with the players still on the course, including defending champion Ernie Els. The South African recovered from a morning deficit to lead Scotland's Scott Drummond 2-up with two holes to play.
Top-ranked Singh trailed European Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer by two holes after 26, while England's Lee Westwood led British Open champion Todd Hamilton of the US 3-up after 29 holes and Argentina's Angel Cabrera led K.J. Choi of South Korea 1-up after 33.
Three matches were all square: Ireland's Padraig Harrington against American Chris Riley after 32, Canadian Mike Weir and Frenchman Thomas Levet also after 32 and Spain's Miguel Jimenez against Steve Flesch of the US after 26.
Goosen, seeking a sixth title at the World Match Play, birdied two of the first four holes and three of the last four in shooting a 7-under 65 while Maggert bogeyed six on the front nine.
"I birdied the second to go one up and played really solid from there. But Jeff didn't play his best as I know he can," Goosen said.
Without losing a hole, Goosen was 10 up after 18 and claimed his 12th birdie of the day on the 25th hole to win the match.
Although the Southern California desert is a long way -- and drastically different -- from her native South Korea, Grace Park feels at home among the sand and the cacti.
Park won her first major title earlier this year at nearby Rancho Mirage, and she opened the Samsung World Championship with a sizzling 10-under 62 on Thursday.
"I'm a desert kind of girl, I guess," Park said after finishing the first round with a two-shot lead on Catriona Matthew.
"I've been playing in Palm Springs since I was 13 years old, in juniors. Everybody was so friendly to me when I got here this week, remembering my win in the Kraft Nabisco," added Park, a former star at Arizona State University.
She responded with probably the best round of her career to open the 72-hole tournament.
"I'm extremely thrilled. It's my first time shooting 10 under, so I'm happy. Today was just an unbelievable day," said Park, who had a 61 earlier this year on a par-70 course in the tournament at Tucson, Arizona.
Park capped her day at Bighorn Golf Club by rolling in tricky 25-footer for birdie on the final hole.
"I had a horrible second shot [to the fringe on 18] and I was thinking I would two-putt. I would have been happy to finish 9 under," Park said. "But I got a big bonus there."
On a sunny and still day, the ideal conditions and relatively easy pin placements made for low first-round scores. Park's 62 was the best in the tournament's 24-year history.
PGA Tour rookie Jason Dufner shot a 7-under 65 Thursday to match his best round of the year and take a one-shot lead after the first round of the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro.
Dufner has missed the cut in 15 of 26 tournaments, and with only two events left, he's 186th on the money list.
Brent Geiberger, Tom Pernice Jr., Bo Van Pelt, Brendan Pappas and Brett Quigley all had 66s Thursday and 12 players were another stroke back. That group included Justin Rose, who had a hole-in-one on the par-3 17th. Shigeki Maruyama of Japan had a 68, as did US Amateur champion Ryan Moore.
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