Round 1 Notes – WGC - CA Championship
Geoff Ogilvy and Miguel Angel Jimenez share the first-round lead of the
World Golf Championships-CA Championship after posting matching 7-under
65s, one stroke ahead of Stewart Cink and two clear of Tiger Woods, Phil
Mickelson, Adam Scott, Anders Hansen and Nick O’Hern.
Ogilvy, a three-time PGA TOUR winner, missed his first three cuts of the
season but has bounced back with a T33 finish at the WGC-Accenture Match
Play Championship, T10 at the PODS Championship and T14 at the Arnold
Palmer Invitational. He is making just his second start at the WGC-CA
Championship, having finished T3 and four strokes behind Tiger Woods a year
ago.
Jimenez had his only start of the PGA TOUR season at the WGC-Accenture
Match Play Championship, finishing T33. Most recently, he claimed the 2007
UBS Hong Kong Open, the second event on the 2008 European Tour schedule. He
is making his fifth start at the WGC-CA Championship (but first since
2005), with a runner-up finish in 1999 equaling his PGA TOUR career-best
finish (2000 U.S. Open).
This represents the fifth time in Ogilvy’s PGA TOUR career that he has held
the first-round lead, with the most recent leading to a runner-up finish at
the 2006 Honda Classic. The others all came during the 2001 season, leading
to a T3 at the Touchstone Energy Tucson Open, T2 at the Honda Classic and a
missed cut at the Buick Challenge. Jimenez has never led after the first
round of a TOUR event, but has held the opening-round lead 14 times on the
European Tour, leading to three wins.
In 2008, the first-round leader/co-leader has won just once in 11
stroke-play events on the PGA TOUR (K.J. Choi at the Sony Open in Hawaii).
At the WGC-CA Championship, the first-round leader/co-leader has won twice
(Tiger Woods in 2002 and 2006).
Stewart Cink, who enters the week with two consecutive runner-up finishes
(WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, PODS Championship), opened with a
6-under 66 and is just one shot behind Ogilvy and Jimenez.
Martin Kaymer, the runner-up to Tiger Woods at the 2008 Dubai Desert
Classic, is one of 10 players at 4-under 68. In 2007, Kaymer became the
first German recipient of the European Tour’s Rookie of the Year award. He
has picked up where he left off the season, winning the 2008 Abu Dhabi
Championship.
Speaking of Kaymer, he is one of 25 players competing in the first WGC-CA
Championship of their careers. The list is as follows: Woody Austin, Mark
Brown, Jonathan Byrd, Daniel Chopra, S.S.P. Chowrasia, Ross Fisher, Peter
Hanson, Gregory Havret, J.B. Holmes, Ryuji Imada, Brendan Jones, Kaymer,
James Kingston, Wen-chong Liang, Hunter Mahan, Chapchai Nirat, Andres
Romero, Paul Sheehan, Heath Slocum, Brandt Snedeker, Richard Sterne, Graeme
Storm, D.J. Trahan, Camilo Villegas and Boo Weekley. No player has won a
WGC event in his first start, except Jeff Maggert -- who won the 1999
Accenture Match Play Championship, the first-ever WGC event.
The recent victory by Tiger Woods at the WGC-Accenture Match Play
Championship means the world’s No. 1 player is currently the defending
champion of all three World Golf Championship events, including the CA
Championship-which he won by two strokes over Brett Wetterich a year ago.
Woods is seeking his seventh win at this event and his fourth in a row at a
tournament he has won on six different golf courses. Only Sam Snead has
more victories in a single tournament, with eight wins in Greensboro, NC
(Wyndham Championship).
Tiger Woods’ wins at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship:
Year Course Victory notes
1999 Valderrama GC 6-under 278, won on 1st playoff hole over
Miguel Angel Jimenez
2002 Mount Juliet Estate 25-under 263, one-stroke victory over
Retief Goosen
2003 Capital City Club 6-under 274, two-stroke win over Appleby,
Herron and Vijay Singh
2005 Harding Park GC 10-under 270, won on 1st playoff hole over
John Daly
2006 The Grove 23-under 261, eight-stroke win over Ian
Poulter
2007 Doral Golf Resort & Spa 10-under 278, two-stroke win over Brett
Wetterich
Woods, currently T4, is well on his way to finishing inside the top 10 at
the WGC-CA Championship for the ninth time in as many tries. In all, he has
won 15 World Golf Championships events out of 26 previous starts. The only
WGC event he didn’t play was the 2001 Accenture Match Play Championship.
Ernie Els (74) and Tiger Woods (67) are the only players in the field to
have won the Ford Championship at Doral and the WGC-CA Championship. Els
won the 2002 Ford Championship and the 2004 WGC-CA Championship. Woods won
back-to-back Ford Championship titles in 2005-06 and has collected six
WGC-CA Championship trophies. The only other past champion of the WGC-CA
Championship in the field this week is Mike Weir, who opened with a 1-over
73.
The first-round course average at the par-72 Doral Golf Resort & Spa’s Blue
Course was 70.899. The toughest hole on Thursday was the par-3 13th,
yielding a 3.405 average. The par-4 18th hole, which ranked as the hardest
hole on TOUR in 2004 and 2007, played to a 4.114 average during the opening
round (sixth hardest of the day).
A pair of Aussies recorded the only bogey-free rounds on Thursday: Geoff
Ogilvy (65) and Adam Scott (67).
With his appearance this week, Stuart Appleby has now participated in 28
career World Golf Championships events, having competed in every WGC event
since the inception of the series in 1999. The eight-time PGA TOUR winner
opened with a 1-over 73 and is looking to get back on track after a missed
cut at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational snapped a string of five
consecutive top-10 finishes to start the season.
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