84 Lumber Classic notebook
Defending champ has rough day FARMINGTON – Defending champion Jason Gore again found Mystic Rock’s hole No. 18 to be magic, but pulled few other rabbits out of his hat Thursday.
Gore, who last year capped a Cinderella season with his first career Tour victory at the 84 Lumber Classic, plodded his way to a 1-over-par 73 and trails first-round lead Nicholas Thompson by nine strokes.
“I made a few mistakes, but that’s kind of the way my year’s been going,” Gore said. “I’ll come back tomorrow, and I’m going to go work on the range right now and figure it out.”
A year ago, Gore held off a hard charging Carlos Franco when he rolled a 92-foot putt to within a foot and a half of the cup on No. 18.
Gore then sank an 18-inch putt worth $792,000.
On Thursday, Gore perhaps picked up a bit of momentum for today’s round when he hit his approach shot to within eight feet before ending his round with a birdie putt.
“I just hit a good shot in there and hit a good putt,” Gore said.
“That was one of the rarities today. I made a few bad mistakes in the water, and that’s never a good thing. But I saw a lot of good signs out there and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
Frowning fans
The first round of the 84 Lumber Classic didn’t go well for several other fan favorites besides Michelle Wie.
Gore, John Daly and Greensburg’s Rocco Mediate all struggled and will have to bounce back strong today to make the cut.
Daly picked up bogies of all types soon after his start on the 10th hole.
He bogeyed the par-5 11th, the par-3 12th and the par-4 15th to put him at 3-over par after just six holes.
Daly picked up three more bogeys the rest of the way and ended up with a double-bogey on No. 9. Two birdies and a group of fans donning blond wigs emulating Daly’s hair did little to offset his troubles and he finished with a 6-over-par 78.
Gore had an eagle, three birdies and two bogeys, but was wrecked by a pair of double bogeys on the back 9 thanks to shots that found water. His tee shot on the par-5 11th landed in a bunker and his blast from there was a miss-hit that landed in the water.
His tee shot on the par-3 17th also splashed well left of the green.
Mediate only hit 10 of 18 greens in regulation and three-putted on the sixth and ninth, both par 4s, on his way to a disappointing 4-over 76.
First and last
Greg Kraft, who is two shots off the lead after a 66, is playing in his first 84 Lumber Classic and wasn’t pleased to find out it will also be the last one.
“I’m not real happy,” Kraft said. “I made sure I came. The first year they had the event is when I got sick, and then I didn’t play for three years trying to get healthy. I’m glad I was able to make it this time, and hopefully in the future we’ll be back.
“I know the players don’t want to leave, and from what I can tell, I think the community and the golf course want us to be here, so hopefully we’ll get it ironed out and we’ll be back.”
Dye-hard course
Sean O’Hair is three shots off the lead with an opening 67, but doesn’t list Mystic Rock as one of his favorite Pete Dye designed courses.
“I was a little bit shocked that Pete Dye designed it,” O’Hair said. “I didn’t play it and say, ‘All right, Pete Dye.’ The only thing I recognized was maybe some of the collection areas and then the railroad ties for steps. That was about it.”
O’Hair was supposed to play in the 84 Lumber Classic last year, but only got in one practice round before pulling out due to illness, so he’s getting his first good look at the course this week.
“There’s some interesting features to the golf course,” O’Hair said.
“There’s a lot of undulations in the greens, there’s some crazy bunkers, and it’s a long, long golf course. I’m not used to playing a golf course almost 8,000 yards long and with greens that are so demanding.
“It’s a very demanding golf course, and there’s some really tough, tough holes out there.”
Rain, rain go away
Mystic Rock is no stranger to water.
In 2003, the second round of the tournament was pushed back a day when Hurricane Isabel’s aftereffects dumped three inches of water on the course.
Played resumed and Mystic Rock rebounded nicely over the weekend.
On Wednesday, wet weather moved through the area and dropped nearly 1.5 inches of rain on Mystic Rock before the sun finally came out Thursday morning.
“It was wet,” Gore said. “It was incredibly wet. There were a lot of puddles. But the golf course was in wonderful shape considering all the rain.
“So I think we slipped by today, and hopefully we’ll get some good weather on the weekend and it should be just fine. The golf course did play extremely well, because we weren’t getting any run on the fairway.”
The forecast for the rest of the tournament is a possibility of fog but no rain with lows in the mid-50s and highs in the mid-to-upper 70s each day.