Wyndham Championship: Round 1 notebook
Weather: Due to a dangerous weather situation first-round play was suspended at 12:24 p.m. Play resumed at 4:30 p.m. for a total delay of 4:06. Play was suspended due to darkness at 7:58 p.m. with half the field still on the course. First-round play will resume Friday morning at 7:45 a.m.
• The day featured mostly cloudy skies with afternoon thunderstorms and temperatures reaching the low-90s. Winds SW 10-15 mph.
• The Wyndham Championship is the 12th tournament of the season to have a suspension of play. The last event was the RBC Canadian Open, which was one of two events this season with a Monday finish (AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am).
• Brandt Snedeker, Chez Reavie and Ryan Moore shot a 6-under 64 to take the first round co-lead after the morning wave. Justin Rose, Kevin Streelman and Colt Knost are all one stroke back.
• Snedeker turned in the third best round of his PGA TOUR career and the best since he shot a final-round 63 to win the 2007 Wyndham Championship. Snedeker's best round on TOUR was a 61 at the 2007 Buick Invitational.
• If his lead/co-lead holds up, it will be Snedeker's second first-round lead. He also led after the first-round of the 2007 Buick Invitational (finished 3rd).
• Reavie tied his career-best round, which he accomplished three times prior to today including when he won the 2008 RBC Canadian Open as a rookie.
• Reavie's only other lead/co-lead after the first-round came when he won the 2008 RBC Canadian Open.
• Moore came within one stroke of matching his career-best round. Moore's best rounds on TOUR are 63s at the 2005 Michelin Championship and 2007 Fry's Electronic Open (T6).
• Moore has held the lead/co-lead after the first-round one other time in his career, at the 2008 EDS Byron Nelson Championship (2nd). Moore has five second-place finishes on TOUR since 2005, but has not been able to claim a victory.
• Justin Rose, ranked 103rdin the FedExCup standings, is looking for his sixth top 25 finish this season on the PGA TOUR. Rose's best finish this season is T13 at the British Open. Prior to today, the last time Rose shot a 65 was the first-round of the 2008 Travelers Championship.
• This season on the PGA TOUR, only seven of 35 first-round leaders/co-leaders have gone on to victory.
• The top 96 players in the FedExCup standings coming into the Wyndham Championship have locked in a spot at The Barclays for the first event of the PGA TOUR Playoff for the FedExCup. This means that all the players ranked 97 or higher in the FedExCup standings are "on the bubble" and are fighting to get into the top 125.
• New Zealand golfer Danny Lee, 19, needs to earn $141,404 this week at the Wyndham Championship to earn special temporary membership on the PGA TOUR and continue playing this season. If Lee does not earn $141,404, he will have to wait until the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament in December to earn his card for next season.
• As the final event in the FedExCup Regular Season, the Wyndham Championship plays a vital role in the race to the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. In the offseason, the field size for the first Playoff event was decreased from 144 to 125 and the Wyndham Championship will serve as the final stage for players trying to move or stay inside the top 125 in the FedExCup standings.
• Another key change this season was moving the points reset from the beginning of the Playoffs to after the BMW Championship (third event). This guarantees that all 30 players at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola will have a mathematical chance at winning the FedExCup. It also means that the top five players in the FedExCup points entering THE TOUR Championship will control their own destiny -- if they win the TOUR Championship they will also win the FedExCup.
• There have not been any rookie winners on TOUR so far this season. The last season that a rookie failed to capture a win was in 1998, the year that Steve Flesch won PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year honors. Actually, since 1979 there have only been three seasons (1998, 1986 and 1981) where a rookie failed to capture a victory.
• Steve Elkington recorded a hole-in-one on No. 3 with a 6-iron.
• Tim Clark (neck) withdrew during the first-round. Flesch (no reason given) withdrew following the first round.
FRIDAY UPDATE
• Bill Haas shot an 8-under 62 to take the first-round lead by two strokes over Brandt Snedeker, Chez Reavie and Ryan Moore Friday morning.
• Haas' only other first-round lead was at the 2006 Wachovia Championship (he tied for fourth).
• Haas' 62 is his lowest career round on the PGA TOUR. His previous low round was a 64 at the 2004 Deutsche Bank Championship (he tied for ninth).
• Justin Thomas, a 16-year-old from Goshen, Ky., shot a 5-under 65 in the first-round. If Thomas makes the cut, he will be the third youngest player in PGA TOUR history to make the cut. Thomas is 16 years, 3 months and 23 days old today (born April 29, 1993). Bob Panasik was 15 years, 8 months and 20 days old when he made the cut at the 1957 Canadian Open. Tadd Fujikawa was 16 years and 4 days old when he made the cut at the 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii.
• Thomas fired one of eight bogey-free first-rounds. The others came from Elkington, Peter Lonard, Jeff Maggert, Scott McCarron, Ryan Moore, Scott Sterling and Streelman.
• Thomas earned a sponsor exemption by winning at the American Junior Golf Association's FootJoy Invitational earlier this year at Sedgefield Country Club. For the first year, a sponsor's exemption to the Wyndham Championship was granted to the winner of the FootJoy Invitational. Thomas made the most of this opportunity, as three late birdies helped him turn a two-shot deficit into a two-shot victory at the FootJoy Invitational and a spot into his first PGA TOUR event. Thomas has two other AJGA wins on his résumé.
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