Rookie takes early lead in 84 Lumber Classic
FARMINGTON – Mystic Rock’s soft greens were no match for Nicholas Thompson Thursday. The 23-year-old Tour rookie birdied six of his first seven holes on his way to an 8-under-par 64 and two-stroke lead after the first round of the 84 Lumber Classic at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa.
Mystic Rock took on nearly 1.5 inches of rain Wednesday, leaving golfers, especially in Thursday’s morning rounds, the option of playing target golf.
No one took advantage of the receptive greens more than Thompson.
“It was kind of like throwing darts in there,” he said. “If you got the right distance, it was just going to stop right there.”
Six players – Will MacKenzie, Greg Kraft, Robert Gamez, Ted Purdy, Ben Curtis and Rory Sabbatini – each fired 6-under-par 66s to trail Thompson by two strokes.
In all, 25 players shot sub-70 rounds.
“Had it not rained and the scores had been this low, I would have been surprised,” Thompson said. “Due to the rain, it softened up the greens. The greens are still some of the best greens we’ve seen on Tour this year. Here and at the B.C. Open are the two best greens we’ve seen.
“They did a great job with the whole golf course, getting it in shape after all that rain. And with the greens, they’ve done a magnificent job.”
Defending champion Jason Gore had an up-and-down round, finishing at 1-over-par 73, while Vijay Singh, who won the tournament in 2004, fired a 1-under-par 71.
Teenage sensation Michelle Wie, trying to become the first female to make a cut in a Tour event since Babe Zaharias did in 1945, got off to a rough start with a 5-over-par 77.
Wie, 16, is in a 5-way tie for 125th place, and barring a huge turnaround today, will likely miss the cut in another Tour event, her sixth in the past three years.
“I’ll go out with the same mindset tomorrow and try my hardest,” Wie said. “I’ll keep plugging away.”
Thompson started his round on hole No. 1, and quickly recorded three straight birdies. After a par on No. 4, three more birdies followed as Thompson was at 6-under when he walked off the No. 7 green.
Back-to-back bogeys stopped the birdie streak, but Thompson rebounded swiftly after the turn, posting consecutive bogeys on No. 10 and No. 11 to get back to 6-under.
Thompson remained there until a bogey on No. 15 dropped him to 5-under. But on the par-5, 525-yard No. 16, Thompson hit driver, 7-iron, landing his approach shot six feet from the cup from where he made his eagle putt and dropped his score back to 7-under.
A birdie on the par-3, 204-yard No. 17 left Thompson at 8-under for the day.
“I played well,” he said. “I hit a lot of good shots, and I can’t say much bad about the round. I hit one poor shot. I think I missed one fairway, and I had two three-putts.”
Thompson’s best finish on Tour came seven weeks ago when he tied for sixth place at the B.C. Open.
In 26 Tour starts this season, he has earned $203,922 and sits at No. 181 on the Tour’s money list.
Thompson’s 64 also matched his career-low on Tour, and the score also tied the best first-round score in 84 Lumber Classic history. Singh posted a 64 during the first round of the 2004 tournament.
On Thursday, MacKenzie, Kraft and Purdy each enjoyed bogey-free rounds.
“The conditions were actually OK out there,” MacKenzie said. “It wasn’t blowing too hard, and the rain has really subsided. I started hitting it well, and I putted fantastic. I had great speed on the greens.
“I never was in jeopardy of a three-putt, so everything went well.”
MacKenzie is red-hot of late, shooting 69 or better six times in his last 11 rounds. Three weeks ago, he picked up his first career Tour victory with a win in the Reno-Tahoe Open.
Six players – Sean O’Hair, Charles Howell III, Tag Ridings, Hunter Mahan, Robert Garrigus and Marco Dawson – fired 5-under-par 67s and sit three strokes off the lead.
NOTES: Purdy has missed the cut in his last seven events.
He last made a cut at the U.S. Open in June and finished in a tie for 27th place. … Howell’s 67 was his best opening-round of the season. … The first-round scoring average of 72.558 was the highest in four years of the 84 Lumber Classic. … Alex Cejka and Scott Verplank hit all 14 fairways Thursday. Verplank is ranked fifth on the Tour in the category, but Cejka is tied for 82nd.