Wachovia Championship: First-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR Staff CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Irishman Padraig Harrington carded an opening-round 66 in the Wachovia Championship on Thursday and takes a one-shot lead over Jason Bohn and Vijay Singh into Friday's second round. • Harrington, playing in his first PGA TOUR event since the Masters Tournament, will be looking to record his seventh consecutive top-25 finish of the 2007 season. This would mark the longest top-25 streak of Harrington's TOUR career.  Defending champion Jim Furyk carded his ninth consecutive round of par or better at Quail Hollow on Thursday. (Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
• Harrington's only other start at the Wachovia Championship was in 2005, when he finished T75 following a final-round 80. • This is the third time that Harrington has been a leader or co-leader after an opening round on TOUR. His best finish in that scenario is a T2 at the 2003 PLAYERS, which was won by Davis Love III. • Defending Champion Jim Furyk opened with a 71 on Thursday. Furyk managed six birdies against five bogeys in his ninth consecutive round of par or better at the Wachovia Championship. • Trevor Immelman's opening-round 68 is all the more impressive given the fact that it was his first round since the Masters, where he came down with a virus. Immelman, who did not pick up a club between the Masters and last Wednesday, lost in a playoff to Jim Furyk at last year's Wachovia Championship. • Immelman and Stephen Ames lead the field in birdies through one round with seven each. • FedExCup points leader Vijay Singh has finished in the top-10 in three of his four starts at the Wachovia Championship. He currently sits $10,496.70 behind Jim Furyk in career earnings at Wachovia with $1,651,503.34. • Two of Jason Bohn's four career PGA TOUR top-10s came in the state of North Carolina. Bohn finished second at the 2006 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro and T3 at the same event in 2005. His best finish at the Wachovia Championship out of three starts was T31 in 2006. • Carl Pettersson, who shot 68 on Friday, has now shot 68 or better in five of his last eight rounds on TOUR. • The 217 yard par-3 17th played as the most difficult hole on Thursday with a stroke average of 3.477. Should this figure remain it would rank as the hardest par-3 on TOUR in 2007 and the fifth most difficult hole overall. The hardest par-3 on TOUR in 2007, No. 4 at Augusta National Golf Club, averaged 3.417 for the week. • The 2007 TOUR leader in Greens in Regulation, John Senden, continued his stout iron play by hitting 94.44 percent (17 of 18) of his greens on Friday. While he leads the field in that category, he was only able to manage a round of 72.
• Two-time PGA TOUR winner Jerry Kelly continued his recent hot streak with an opening round 69. Kelly has recorded four straight top-10 finishes and 12 of his past 16 rounds at par or better. Kelly has moved from 99th to 31st on the season long FedExCup points list during his streak. He has also amassed $888,400 in winnings during that period. • The fairways at the Quail Hollow Club are running fast and the statistics back it up. At the end of the first round, 83 players averaged over 300 yards off the tee. Leading the pack is J.B. Holmes, whose two measured drives averaged 366 yards on the day. • Three players had bogey-free rounds on Friday. Padraig Harrington (66), Arron Oberholser (69), and Aaron Baddeley (71) all managed to avoid bogeys in their first rounds. • 2004 Wachovia Championship winner Joey Sindelar carded an eagle on his opening hole, the par-5 10th, en route to firing a round of 69 on Thursday. Sindelar, who has struggled in 2007, will be looking to make his fourth cut of the season and improve on his T56 finish as the Shell Houston Open, which is his best of the year. • The Quail Hollow Club has quickly established itself as one of the more difficult layouts on TOUR. It has ranked among the top-10 in difficulty the past two years (2006 -- ninth hardest, 2005 -- seventh hardest) and has only had two rounds average par or better since the event's inception in 2003 (2006-Round 3-71.753; 2004-Round 3-71.806). • The arduous par-4 18th at Quail Hollow, which has played as the most difficult hole in each of the Wachovia Championship's four years, softened a bit on Thursday with an average of 4.240, making it the fourth most difficult on Thursday. • This is the 12th event in the 2007 PGA TOUR season where one player has sat atop the leaderboard after the opening round. Fred Funk was the only solo first round leader who went on to win when he captured the title at the inaugural Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya - Cancun. Harrington had the largest solo opening round lead of the year when he led by three shots after the first round at the Nissan Open. • The PGA TOUR Wives Association held a silent auction this week in which they raised $40,000 for charity. The Wives Association auctioned off two four-hour credits on a Sentinent Jet to the highest bidders. One-hundred percent of the proceeds will go to charity with a portion going to a Charlotte-based charity. • Sean O'Hair withdrew after the completion of his opening round. ... Dudley Hart withdrew during his round after injuring his left hand. ... Paul Azinger withdrew during his round...Richard S. Johnson withdrew after his round. ... Jesper Parnevik withdrew after his round after re-injuring his middle finger which he broke earlier this season. ... Frank Lickliter was disqualified for an incorrect scorecard. Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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