Paddison, Teater benefit from Barnes' late slip
By Joe Chemycz, PGA TOUR Staff
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand -- Australian Kurt Barnes took advantage of nearly perfect scoring conditions Thursday morning to shoot an 8-under-par 64 and grab the first-round lead in the HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship, the third stop on the 2009 Nationwide Tour schedule.
Barnes, a 27-year old big hitter from New South Wales, used seven birdies and an eagle to move atop the leaderboard in the $600,000 event being contested at the Clearwater Resort for the eighth consecutive year. His 64 is one stroke better than fellow Aussie Ryan Hammond, who was 9-under through 14 holes before stumbling in with a pair of late bogeys.
Barnes is two up on Americans Jason Enloe and David Branshaw, who hold down third place.
Alistair Presnell, winner of last week's Moonah Classic in Australia, heads a group at 5-under 67, three back. Joining Presnell are Swedish rookie Jonas Blixt, a 2008 Florida State graduate who hit 17 greens in regulation, as well Americans Josh Teater of Kentucky and Major Manning of Daytona Beach, Fla. Aussie Andre Stolz, a former winner on the Nationwide Tour is also in at 67 along with Scott Dunlap of the U.S. and New Zealand's Gareth Paddison, who double-bogeyed the final hole but still tops the Kiwi contingent of 19.
Thursday's scoring average was 71.847, marking the lowest first-round scoring average in tournament history. It was also just the seventh time in 27 total rounds that the average was below the par of 72.
"This was great today," said Enloe, one of the early finishers. "I've been here five times and today was the best weather we've had. Overcast and soft greens, you can't ask for more than that."
Barnes' stellar play in the opening 18 was due largely in part to his work on the greens, where he had only 23 putts to lead the field.
"I've had a bit of trouble with the flat stick," said Barnes, the 2002 Australian Amateur champion who has had limited success since turning pro in '03. "I needed to call my coach. It was a call that was needed. It was an eight-minute call. I probably should have made it three months ago."
Barnes' coach, who moved 575 miles north from Sydney to Brisbane last year, making face-to-face sessions tougher, gave his pupil some brief instruction over the phone to straighten his legs a bit, thus allowing his arms to move more freely. The advice was spot on, as they say in this part of the world.
"I needed my memory jogged," said Barnes. "I've been striking the ball well the last six months and it's nice to see the ball go in again."
Barnes saw everything perfectly on a day that produced 76 sub-par scores.
"I don't think my score could have been any worse than 64 today," said Barnes. "Every line we picked was good. My ball striking was exactly how I wanted it to be. It was all right on line, save for one or two."
The highlight of his day came at the par-5, 14th where he holed a bunker shot for an eagle, putting him at 7-under.
"I hit a terrible second shot in there. The ball was nestled down a bit and I just squeezed it to the right," he said. "Whenever you hole a bunker shot that's downhill, left to right, you take it and run."
Enloe is second to Barnes on the scoreboard and second to Barnes in putts with 24. His round of 66 was inches closer to being a 64 as two of his birdie tries hung on the edge of the cup but did not fall.
"It was to the point where I had to wait the full 10 seconds to see if they'd drop in," said Enloe, a 35-year old transplanted Texan who tied for 22nd. "I played great last week and if I would have putted decently I could have had a high finish. I just wanted to continue to build on my ball striking and hopefully putt a little better this week."
Enloe, who won on Tour in 2006, also credited his improved play to a change in attitude for the 2009 season.
"I've been too hard on myself in the past and putting too much emphasis on my score," he said. "It's my sixth year out here and I'm just tired of letting it beat me down. I used to play this game because I loved it and it was fun. I'm trying to get back to that."
Despite hitting only 12 greens in regulation, Enloe needed only 24 putts to get within one of his career-low score.
"I want to have fun out here," said Enloe. "I've got a great job and I want to get off of this Tour. The way I've been doing it, trying too hard, hasn't been working. It's not that I'm going to try less, I'm just going to try and have more fun."
Among his recent reads, Enloe polished off "Golf's Sacred Journey -- Seven Days at the Links of Utopia" by David Cook, a book that weaves a journey of golf and life into everyday perspective.
"It's really true that we beat ourselves up out here," he said. "Other than the very best players in the world, we don't win very often in this game. We don't do as well as we want. If you keep telling yourself you're bad, you'll eventually start to believe it. I'm tired of doing that."
First-Round Notes: Australian Ryan Hammond rolled in six consecutive birdies during the opening round. Hammond had six in a row on holes 7-12. The tournament record is seven, set by David Hearn in 2007.
• Wade Ormsby (70) also had five consecutive birdies on holes 3-7 Thursday.
• A total of 31 players broke 70 on Thursday, while 76 posted sub-par scores.
• Kurt Barnes' 64 matches the lowest opening round in the tournament's 8-year history. Steven Bowditch led by two strokes after shooting a 64 in 2005.
• Justin Hicks led the field by hitting 12 of 14 fairways.
• Jonas Blixt (67) led the field by hitting 17 of 18 greens in regulation.
• Kurt Barnes (64) led the field in putting with 23 total putts.
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