First round: Laird, Heintz make early bid for Playoffs
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- Bob Heintz has always wanted some fans to follow him around the course for a change. For one day anyway, he got that kind of attention, even if it took some ribbing -- and a remarkable start to the Wyndham Championship.
Heintz and rookie Martin Laird matched the course record Thursday with 7-under 63s at Sedgefield Country Club to share the lead after the first round of the PGA TOUR's last event before the start of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
They joined three other players who previously shot 63s at the Donald Ross-designed course -- nobody had done it since Gary Player in 1970, although the pros haven't played Sedgefield since 1976 -- and surpassed the venue's opening-round record by one stroke.
Garrett Willis birdied his final five holes to join Scott Sterling, Tim Clark and Carl Pettersson one stroke back at 64. Steve Marino, Bob Sowards, Ken Duke and Scott McCarron were two strokes behind at 65.
Early during Heintz's round, he figured out that the gallery of roughly 50 people was far more interested in another member of his threesome, local amateur Drew Weaver.
"I said, 'I imagine y'all are here to watch Drew, right?'" Heintz said. "They kind of laughed and felt bad that they weren't there to watch me. I relayed to them that one of my career goals was to get where I'm good enough where someone might actually go to a golf course, pick up a pairing sheet and say, 'I'll follow Bob Heintz's group today.'
"That's kind of a vague career goal, but they started to tease me about that as the day went on -- 'I guess I'll follow you now.' I'd rather have attention than, you know, have nobody know who I was."
Heintz started his round on the back nine and birdied five of his first eight holes. He could have pushed his score even lower on his final hole, the par-4 ninth, but he pushed his 15-foot birdie putt to the right and tapped in for par.
Laird's round was bogey-free with five birdies -- including one on the course's toughest hole, the par-4 18th. He added an eagle on the par-4 13th, using a wedge out of the left rough and holing out from about 115 yards away.
"That was one of the ones I got lucky," Laird said.
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| Thursday's Best |
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The par-5, 529-yard fifth was the easiest with a Thursday scoring
average of 4.340.
The par-4, 507-yard 18th was the toughest with a Thursday scoring
average of 4.269.
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Kevin Streelman had a tap-in birdie after hitting his approach shot stiff on the par-4 ninth. The ball hung on the lip of the cup. 
Martin Laird. Laird gets the nod over Bob Heintz (63) because his round was bogey-free and included an eagle. | QUOTE OF THE DAY | ||
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ANDRADE: 'ALL IT TAKES IS ONE WEEK'
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Billy Andrade has just had two weeks off so he certainly doesn't want to be idle another four.
"I think my wife will kill me at home," Andrade said, grinning.
That's exactly the prospect facing the four-time PGA TOUR champion, though, if he doesn't work his way into the top 144 in the FedExCup standings at the end of this week's Wyndham Championship.
The tournament at historic Sedgefield Country Club is the final event before the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup begin next week. Andrade entered the tournament ranked No. 182 -- which is 781 points out of the final qualifying spot.
Andrade gave himself a shot when he opened the $5.1 million event Thursday with a 66 that left him three strokes off the lead held by Martin Laird and Bob Heintz. The round of 4 under tied his low of the season, shot at Congressional C.C. during the AT&T National last month.
The way Andrade sees things, he's got nothing to lose.
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INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
XM Satellite Radio announcer Doug Bell offers these observations from Thursday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
Brandt Snedeker does everything fast. He talks, walks, picks a club, and pulls the trigger for a shot about as fast as anyone on the PGA TOUR. For a young player, that's not always a good thing.
His caddie Scott Vail does a wonderful job of not only keeping up with his fast-paced player, but also slowing him down in subtle ways. He often takes a little longer in checking yardages, and sometimes doesn't pull the bag away immediately.
They work extremely well together, and it was evident in the opening round, as Snedeker shot 4-under 66, in defense of his title at the Wyndham Championship.
It was another frustrating day for Vijay Singh on the greens. The highest-ranked player in the field shot a 1-under 69 after needing 32 putts in the opening round.
Vijay told me yesterday that he had no plans to change from the belly to a normal putter for the remainder of the year, and he feels he's close to getting the right alignment.
Vijay's drop-off this year has been noticeable. He is 104th in putting, compared to the last five years in which he averaged being 36th in putts per GIR.
Davis Love III, needing a quality finish to reach the opening round of the Playoffs next week, carded a solid 4 under 66 on Thursday.
Backed by a large number of family, friends, and North Carolina Tar Heels fans, the veteran seemed to enjoy himself in the opening round. Davis says the only thing holding him back is patience. He went for several tight hole locations, and he told me afterwards that he should have known better.
KENTUCKY ON HIS MIND
Zach Johnson came to Greensboro with essentially one goal in mind.
He wants to make the Ryder Cup team and at 17th in the standings, he needs to impress U.S. Captain Paul Azinger. If Johnson can keep building on that 66 he shot Thursday in the first round of the Wyndham Championship, it might just do the trick.
"I want to make that Ryder Cup team," Johnson said earlier this week. "That's no secret. I've told everybody. I don't want to make it a major thought-provoking thing because I want to take care of my business on the golf course and let things fall where they fall.
"But once you experience one of those things -- wear that flag on your shirt -- you want to be associated every year."
Johnson hasn't had the season he would have liked, though. He's fought through a wrist injury that sidelined him for several weeks and has only had one top-10 finish in 19 starts. He's 109th in the FedExCup standings, as a result.
So a strong performance at Sedgefield would go a long way toward improving his position in a lot of different areas. But Johnson needs to let things happen, rather than think about what might develop -- particularly where the Ryder Cup is concerned.
"I learned two years ago," Johnson said. "I thought about it too much. I made it too much of a goal -- a right-out-in-front-of-me goal. My game hasn't come together like I wanted it to this year but it's nothing significant. I know that it will turn around.
"What I'm saying is if I don't make it that big a deal where it works on my mind I think good things can happen much like the Presidents Cup last year. I wanted to be on that team very bad and I just played and it happened. That's kind of the way I have to go about it. I have got three weeks to prove myself and that's going to be my goal."
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| How players on the 144-player Playoffs bubble performed in the first round: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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ANOTHER LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD
Well, practically a local boy. He went to school just down I-85.
Stephen Poole had planned to be in Dothan, Ala., this week playing in a mini-tour event there. Instead, he's playing in his first PGA TOUR event after winning the Monday qualifier.
Poole, who graduated from Clemson in 2006, made the most of his opportunity on Thursday, too, shooting a 66 in the first round of the Wyndham Championship. The round included a hole-out from the fairway for eagle on the par-5 15th.
"I was walking up to that green I kind of had to pinch my arm a little bit and make sure I was still awake," Poole said with a grin. "I played well. It was pretty nerve-wracking there the first few holes. I managed to calm myself down. The last hole I kind of hit a bad tee shot -- wish I could have that back. Overall, I played great."
Poole's gallery on Thursday included his mother. His wife and father are heading up to Greensboro from South Carolina on Friday. He called the first round an "unbelieveable learning experience."
"This is great for me," Poole said. "I can't wait to get out here tomorrow."
LAIRD TRYING TO COPY CHEZ
Martin Laird, who is tied for the lead after the first round of the Wyndham Championship, was rooming with Chez Reavie when his friend won the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open last month.
Laird was able to watch how Reavie handled the pressure on a daily basis. Not to mention, he began to realize that he could just as easily be the one contending as his fellow rookie.
"I saw his win from wire-to-wire, every step with him, because at night he would come back and talk about it" said the 25-year-old Scot. "He said to me Sunday night, 'If I can do it, you can do it.'
"That's what it means. That's true. After seeing one of your friends that you play with a lot and you know you're all kind of the same standard, it definitely gives you a confidence boost to see that you can do it."
Laird said he and Reavie celebrated with dinner and several bottles of wine that Sunday night in Reno. Wonder who paid? Well, it's not who you might think.
"The guys, the clothing company he wears, they're from Toronto, so they picked it up," Laird said with a smile.
Laird and Bob Heintz equaled the competitive course record Thursday -- joining the likes of Gary Player (1070), Doug Sanders (1968) and John Schlee (1967).
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