Jones' 8-under 64 leads TPC
Updated: March 25, 2005, 8:37 AM ET
Associated Press
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- There's more than the Big Four at The Players Championship.
Vijay Singh matched his best start ever on the TPC at Sawgrass.
Phil Mickelson lit up the tame course with seven birdies inside 4 feet, only to give away five strokes with shots that went under trees and under water.
"Then along came Jones," said former U.S. Open champion Steve Jones, who stole the spotlight with an 8-under 64 in the lowest first-round scoring at Sawgrass in nine years.
The Players Championship had its share of surprises Thursday, none bigger than Jones, who dabbled in commercial real estate last year when he thought an elbow injury might end his career, winding up atop the leaderboard.
Funk was only slightly startled when his caddie looked at the leaderboard and noticed that Jones had just completed a bogey-free round at 64, one off the course record.
"I go, '
Steve Jones shot 8 under? Where did he come from?"' Funk said.
Last seen riding around in a cart as an assistant captain at the Ryder Cup, Jones made seven birdies in eight holes on a TPC at Sawgrass course that was so soft that the fairways could not be mowed.
An elbow injury kept him away from competition all of last year. He hasn't won since 1998.
"Eight birdies, no bogeys. That's a good thing, right?" Jones said, showing he hasn't forgotten everything about life on the PGA Tour.
Maybe it was just a coincidence that first-round scoring at Sawgrass (71.87) was the lowest since 1996, the year Jones won the U.S. Open at Oakland Hills.
"I think he's healthy now," Singh said. "He's no mug. He can play."
Singh continued to show the best form of the Big Four, matching his best start ever at The Players Championship with a 5-under 67 that was highlighted by two good par saves in the middle of his round and a mammoth tee shot on the 18th that set up a birdie.
The others broke par, but couldn't keep up with Jones. Mickelson and Woods had a 70, while Els was at 71.
It was the first time all four of them broke par in the first round.
Big deal.
Sawgrass has rarely been this soft and still, and it showed in the low scores. Even the island-green 17th, the most daunting par 3 in golf, played under par.
Three players holed out from the fairway for eagle, as the pins were cut in accessible positions.
"They're all pretty much the easiest pins we'll see," Mickelson said.
It was no surprise that 87 players were at par or better, and 29 players were in the 60s.
Westwood had a chance to join Jones at the top until he missed a 5-foot birdie putt on his final hole, the par-5 ninth.
Sergio Garcia was among those at 6-under 66, although the 25-year-old Spaniard was slightly disappointed after ripping a 3-wood from 281 yards over a tree and onto the green at the ninth, where it rolled by the hole to about 8 feet. He missed that eagle putt, and missed a 3-footer for birdie on No. 4.
Jones thought his career might be over when he suffered a severe elbow injury two years ago. His health returned, but it wasn't until a recent conversation with
Hale Irwin that Jones decided to kick it into gear. He wouldn't divulge details of the motivational speech, but the gist was to stop complaining and go to work.
"I've felt that something was going to happen soon," Jones said.
The birdies came in bunches - seven of them in an eight-hole stretch, including putts of 25, 40 and 50 feet. The most important might have been the shortest, when his tee shot landed in a divot on No. 4, leaving him a delicate 90-yard shot over water to a front hole location.
"I could have complained about it, but I said, 'You know how to hit this shot.' I just choked way down on a pitching wedge ... and I hit it a foot," Jones said. "That was a big turning point."
Singh cared only about a good start, not that he was three off the lead. He has lost on the final hole each of the last two weeks, but got into Sunday contention after having to recover from indifferent starts.
"It's nice to start off a tournament in contention for a change," Singh said. "Normally, I'm chasing. Five under is a good start for me."
It was his best since he opened with a 67 in 2001, the year he was runner-up to Woods in The Players Championship.
Woods birdied two of his first three holes, but was aggravated over missing three birdie putts inside 8 feet, one that led to a three-putt par on the par-5 16th.
"You just can't afford to do that," he said.
Mickelson was fascinating as usual with a mixture of brilliance and bad shots, and no hole captured that like No. 5. He hit his tee shot so far to the right that it went beyond the bunker and nearly in the water. Then, he hit a low bullet out of the rough that ran up onto the green to within 2 feet for birdie.
He made seven birdies, the longest of which was 4 feet.
But he was wild at times, hitting under a tree on the par-3 eighth to make double bogey, barely finding land on the island-green 17th for bogey and hitting 3-wood into the water on the 18th.
"It was feast or famine," he said. "If I had three birdies and bogey, it would have been a great round. But because I had so many birdies, and so many chances to turn it into a great round and didn't, that's what is disappointing."
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press
