After 62, Ridings leads suspended first round in Chattanooga  CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Tag Ridings put together one of the best rounds of his career Thursday, shooting a 10-under-par 62 to take the first-round lead in the annual birdie-fest otherwise known as the Nationwide Tour's Chattanooga Classic at Black Creek. Ridings' bogey-free effort left him two shots in front of Martin Laird, Jacob's Creek Open winner Scott Sterling, Bob Burns and Matt Weibring. Veteran John Morse is three off the pace with Ryan Blaum at 7-under through 16 holes.  Tag Ridings has a three-shot lead in Chattanooga. (WireImage)
Scott Gardiner, Gary Christian, Camilo Benedetti, Jon Turcott, Deane Pappas, HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship winner Nicholas Thompson, Ron Whittaker and Tommy Tolles are in at 66 and tied for eighth place, four back of the leader. Thursday's scoring average is 69.964 at the Black Creek Club, which has ranked among the easiest on the Nationwide Tour over the past four years. Play was suspended due to darkness at 7:05 p.m. with seven players left to complete the round. Those players will return to the course and finish their rounds at 8:15 a.m. Round two will begin at 8 a.m. as scheduled. Ridings, who has split time between the Nationwide Tour (9 starts) and the PGA TOUR (17 starts) this year gave proper credit to his wife, Brenda, who booked him a flight to Palm Springs, CA after he missed the cut at last week's PGA TOUR stop, the Frys.com Open in Las Vegas. "It was her idea to go and see my coach," said Ridings, who is No. 209 on the PGA TOUR money list and No. 86 on the Nationwide Tour money list. "It was about time. I hadn't seen him since January. I needed a tuneup." Ridings worked primarily on his posture during his instructional visit. "My coach said everything else looked great. Better posture leads to a better turn and better shots." The former Arkansas Razorback couldn't have hit it much better than he did during the opening day of the Tour's next-to-last full field event. Ridings hit 12 of 14 fairways and matched his career best by hitting 17 of 18 greens in regulation. The 62 was one shot off his personal low, an final-round, 11-under-par 61 which came, ironically enough, at the 2004 Michelin Championship at Las Vegas where he tied for second. Ridings' 62 matched the tournament's best opening 18 and is one off the course record of 61 set by rookie Kyle Reifers during his victory run a year ago. While Ridings and the rest of the 144-man field jockeys for position on the Nationwide Tour money list where the top-25 players will earn their 2008 PGA TOUR cards, 49-year old Morse is counting the days until he becomes eligible for the Champions Tour next February. "I think abot it every day," said Morse about joining his contemporaries next year. "I've been trying to get ready for 50 next year, and maybe this is a harbinger of things to come." Morse is No. 175 on the Nationwide Tour money and has focused most of his attention on the future. "I've been basically revamping my swing for quite some time," said the 1995 United Airlines Hawaiian Open winner. "I think I was swinging the club pretty poorly for a long time. It's nice to see pieces of a bad swing fall away and pieces of a new swing that I like a lot better take over." Morse bogeyed the second hole of the day when his tee shot on the par-3, 11th flew over the green, but it was smooth sailing after that. He righted the ship with a 35-foot chip-in eagle two holes later and never looked back. "It's finally coming around," said the Michigan resident. "I'm showing some signs. I just had a nice day. Tomorrow could be totally different. I can't tell what's going to happen any more." First-Round Notes: Players who were bogey-free on Thursday: Tag Ridings (62), Scott Sterling (64), Bob Burns (64), Jon Turcott (66), Deane Pappas (66), Nicholas Thompson (66), Skip Kendall (67), Jeff Wood (67), David McKenzie (67), Danny Briggs (68), Brad Elder (68)...Dustin Bray, Brenden Pappas and Matt Weibring each had two eagles... |
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