The Daily Wrap-up, Round 1: Transitions Championship
PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) -- Jim Furyk started the season worried about rust.
When he failed to win last season on the PGA TOUR for only the third time in the last 14 years -- making him ineligible for the Mercedes Benz Championship at Kapalua -- he decided to skip the first five weeks of the year for an extended vacation.
Furyk did not play until the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and it took him a few tournaments to get going.
"I was a little nervous about being rusty," he said. "It had been a long time since I played. I seemed to get back into the flow quickly."
Thursday was more proof of that.
When he finished his final hole at the Transitions Championship with a 10-foot par save for a 6-under 65, he signed for his sixth consecutive round in the 60s. Coming off a third-place finish last week at Doral, he clearly is headed in the right direction.
"I'm obviously very happy with playing such a good round and getting off to a good start," Furyk said. "Something I can try to build on."
He was one shot ahead of Stephen Ames, and perhaps it was no coincidence that both played in the morning. The more the sun baked out the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook, the firmer and tougher the greens became.
"It's tough out there. It's U.S. Open conditions," Kenny Perry said after a hard-earned 68. "There's no breather holes out there."
Furyk won a U.S. Open six years ago at Olympia Fields, the signature win among his 13 career victories. If that seems like a long time ago, even more stunning was this fact that emerged from his 65 in the opening round at Innisbrook: It was the first time in nearly 20 months that he had the lead on the PGA TOUR after any round. That dates to his last victory, the Canadian Open at Angus Glen the final week of July in 2007
His putter has been the culprit -- the case with so many other players -- and the few times he did give himself a chance in the final round, he simply didn't hole enough putts.
"The reality is, I didn't win. That's what everyone emphasizes, and I understand why," Furyk said.
But he worked hard on his aim with the short stick and is gaining confidence. Furyk didn't need much help when he started his round on the back nine, making all his birdies from short range.
Then came a sweeping, 35-foot birdie putt that dropped for a 31 to open the tournament, and he birdied the next two holes to separate himself from the early starters. The only bogey came on a poor bunker shot on the par-3 eighth, and Furyk was fortunate not to drop another shot at the end.
"That would have been disappointing after playing so well for the first 16 holes," he said. "So I felt good about knocking that putt in and having a good start for the week."
Furyk wasn't the only player who might have momentum on his side.
Masters champion Trevor Immelman has struggled mightily since his month break after Abu Dhabi, and he might have been forcing it with his defense of a Green Jacket approaching. Somewhere between the range and the golf course, he lost confidence in his swing. But he had a 72-69 weekend at Doral, played nicely at the Tavistock Cup, and his 68 in the first round was his lowest score of the year.
"It was nice to play like myself again for a change," Immelman said. "I started feeling a little bit better the last 10 days or so. It was nice to actually go out there and do it on the golf course."
The large group at 68 included David Toms, coming off a two-week break and starting his three-week bid to get into the Masters. Toms is at No. 66 in the world ranking and needs to get inside the top 50 after Bay Hill next week. That might require a third-place finish, and Toms certainly had few complaints with a bogey-free round.
The longest par putt he faced all day was from 4 feet on his last hole, and getting around Innisbrook without too much stress is rare.
"It's a lot like major championships out here," Toms said. "You've got to play your way around, and sometimes you can't go at certain pins. There's just not a ton of birdies out there."
Ryo Ishikawa found two of them immediately. The 17-year-old from Japan, in his second PGA TOUR start, holed a 15-foot birdie on the par-5 first and knocked in a birdie from 12 feet on the second. He didn't improve on that, however, and wound up with a 69.
Even so, he was in much better shape than he was at Riviera last month, when he missed the cut.
"I was more relaxed compared with my first event," he said. "The key was the first hole."
Divots: David Berganio withdrew Thursday morning, opening a spot in the field for Colt Knost. But the former U.S. Amateur champion had already left town, so Derek Fathauer got the tee time. It took him 10 holes to make a birdie, and he shot 76. ... Fred Funk withdrew after opening with a 78.
| Top 5 notables at Transitions Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Thursday's Best |
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The 575-yard par-5 11th hole at Copperhead was the easiest with a Thursday scoring average of 4.660.
The 435-yard par-4 second hole at Copperhead was toughest with a Thursday scoring average of 4.292.
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Troy Matteson holed a spectacular bunker shot to save par at No. 14 on his way to a 69. 
On a day that didn't yield a lot of low scores, Jim Furyk managed to fire a 6-under 65. | QUOTE OF THE DAY | ||
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INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
PGA TOUR Network correspondent Bob Stevens offers these observations from Thursday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146/SIRIUS 209 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
Interesting how even the best players often dwell on their worst shots. After his opening 65, Jim Furyk easily recounted the bogey at his next-to-last hole and the challenge of saving par at the final hole, yet had to be reminded which hole it was he rammed home a 33-footer for birdie (the sixth, his 15th of the day). And of his 40-foot birdie at 18 in the middle of the round? Furyk said it snaked all over the green, and while members of the gallery called it a "great putt," his caddie "Fluff" Cowan agreed with Furyk that the hole made a "great catch".
Don't you just hate perfectionists?
By the way, one of Furyk's partners in Wednesday's pro-am, former baseball slugger Fred McGriff, followed Furyk through the first round and wondered aloud to our Michael Collins how Furyk could make all those putts on Thursday, but none for the team on Wednesday. The "Crime Dog" has taken enough BP to know the game's a lot different when they start playing for real.
Kenny Perry opened with an excellent 67, but the phrases he used to describe his round were "hard-fought battle all day,"; "U.S. Open conditions"; and "one of the hardest courses" we play on TOUR. Believe it or not, he's not crying wolf. Last year, Perry opened with an even better 66, but then shot back-to-back 75s on the way to a 30th place tie.
| What the top finishers said... | ||||||||||||||||
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| Read full interview transcripts | ||||
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| Live Essentials | ||||
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FIRST-ROUND NOTEBOOK: TRANSITIONS CHAMPIONSHIP
By Mark Williams, PGA TOUR Staff
PALM HARBOR, Fla. -- Jim Furyk shot a 6-under 65, his low round of the year, to take the lead after the first round of the Transitions Championship.
• Furyk's last first-round lead/co-lead was a five-way tie at the 2007 AT&T National after a 66. His last outright first-round lead was the 2005 Barclays Classic, where he shot 65. Furyk has held the first-round lead/co-lead 18 times and gone on to win four of those 18.
• Furyk has 13 career PGA TOUR victories, the most recent at the 2007 RBC Canadian Open.
• Furyk's 65 is his sixth consecutive round in the 60s dating back to the final round of the Northern Trust Open where he shot 68. Furyk posted four rounds in the 60s at last week's World Golf Championships-CA Championship, finishing third.
• Furyk is in the Tampa Bay area for the second time in less than two months and looking for success again. The Pittsburgh Steelers fan attended the Super Bowl Championship at Raymond James Stadium in February. The Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals, 27-23.
• Furyk is on track to make his 17th consecutive cut, which would place him third in that category behind Tiger Woods and Robert Allenby, who both have 31.
To read the remainder of this story, click here.
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