Chris DiMarco got off to a fast start in his first event since losing the Masters in a playoff, shooting a season-best 7-under 65 for a share of the first-round lead in the Zurich Classic on Thursday.
India's Arjun Atwal also opened with a 65, birdieing six of his final nine holes on the TPC of Louisiana, the Pete Dye-designed course in its first year as the tournament site after 16 years at English Turn.
DiMarco, coming off the emotional first-hole loss to Tiger Woods three weeks ago at Augusta National, had a bogey-free round in swirling wind gusts.
PHOTO: AP
"As long as I'm hitting the ball as solid as I'm hitting it, it really doesn't matter if you play in the wind or not," DiMarco said. "My irons are very crisp and when you hit crisp iron shots the wind doesn't affect them as much."
DiMarco, who started the round on No. 10, had three birdies on the first nine holes. He got to 4 under with a birdie on No. 1, made five straight pars, and holed a 20-foot eagle putt on the par-5 seventh. He closed the round with a birdie on No. 9.
"You just got to know where to miss it on this golf course," DiMarco said. "You got to know which side you can get up and down from and not try to be real aggressive. I had the luxury of being a couple under par and not having to go for certain pins."
Atwal, who lost a playoff last month in the BellSouth Classic, said he concentrated on his putting.
"I just tried to make pars because it was so windy," Atwal said. "Then I got things going on the front nine."
Defending champion Vijay Singh was in a group at 67.
Opening on the back nine, Singh had two bogeys and three birdies to make the turn at 1 under. He bogeyed No. 1 then had birdies on Nos. 2, 6 and 7.
Singh had an eagle on the par-4 eighth, with a 308m drive and a 27m chip to go to 6 under. He three-putted No. 9, however, for a final bogey.
"I had a lot of long putts that I couldn't judge," Singh said. "I three-putted four times. Long putts are hard for me to do the way the wind is blowing."
After three weeks away from the tour, DiMarco showed no sign of being rusty.
"No, because when I went home for two weeks I played a lot of golf," he said.
J.J. Henry, Tom Pernice Jr. and Tim Clark also shot 67s.
"My putter was the key today," Pernice said. "I haven't putted well this year."
With the move to the year-old TPC of Louisiana, players such as Henry, who did not play in the pro-am, had just one round of practice before the start of play on Thursday.
"I looked at it as, `Hey, everybody is kind of in the same boat,'" Henry said. "It's a golf course that's not one that you're going to be where you can't sleep the night before. There's no hole that jumps out, where you're really sweating it out."
Kris Tschetter shot a 3-under 69 in driving rain that gave way to windy afternoon conditions to top the field in the first round of the Franklin American Mortgage Championship.
Tschetter made par on just one of her first seven holes and finished with six birdies and three bogeys to take a one-stroke lead over Cristie Kerr, Grace Park and Stacy Prammanasudh on the Vanderbilt Legends Club's Ironhorse Course.
"This course is playing so long right now," Tschetter said. "I can't ever remember it playing like this."
Tschetter, an 18-year veteran who won her lone LPGA Tour title in 1992, got off to a quick start by holing a 50-foot putt on No. 10, her first hole of the day. But she gave the stroke back on the next hole, setting the tone for the day.
"I just said, `I have to be patient, there's going to be tough golf out there' and just tried not to let it bother me," she said.
Tschetter's final birdies came on the sixth and seventh holes. She hit a 5-wood into the green and sank a 20-foot putt on the 396-yard par-4 sixth before putting a sand wedge within a foot on No. 7. She hit 13 of 14 fairways and had 30 putts.
"Normally, this is a course where you can hit a lot of wedges and 9-irons and you expect to make a lot of birdies," she said. "But it was just so long today."
Park, returning after a three-week layoff because of back problems, birdied three out of four holes to take an early lead. She birdied No. 8, but had bogeys on Nos. 7 and 9 to close the round.
"I hit a 9-iron to about 15 feet [on the eighth], it was just a slider left to right and I made it," she said. "It was nice after bogeying the seventh."
No. 7, a short par 5, was the easiest hole in scoring average for the first round, but Park gave the stroke right back on her final hole, No. 9, and kicked her golf bag in frustration.
The weather made it frustrating for almost everyone, but it wasn't unexpected. Rain fell all four days of last year's tournament, and rain on Tuesday and Wednesday this week forced most of the players to shorten their preparation.
Kerr was pleased with her round in the difficult conditions.
"I didn't hit too many errant shots, and I didn't hit too many great shots," she said. "But I played very well."
Prammanasudh didn't have to play in the rain the whole round, but she said the wind came into play.
"As if it wasn't long enough already, the holes against the wind were pretty tough," she said. "You just had to stay patient out there. Par was your friend."
Young Mexican star Lorena Ochoa, making her first title defense, and Wendy Ward, who finished second in last year's tournament, opened with 71.
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