Golf Capsules: Atwal encouraged by record-tying round at Wyndham

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Arjun Atwal doesn't have a PGA Tour card anymore. To get one for next year, he'll either have to win a tournament or climb the money lists.

"I prefer to win," Atwal said with a laugh.

Three more days like Thursday, and he'll take care of that.

Atwal tied a Wyndham Championship record with a 61 and took a two-stroke lead after one round of golf's final event before the playoffs. He matched Carl Pettersson's 2-year-old mark at the par-70 Sedgefield Country Club course.

Brandt Snedeker shot a 63. John Rollins, Kevin Streelman, Lucas Glover, Boo Weekley, David Toms and Jeev Milkha Singh were at 64, and six players shot 65s during an occasionally wet day that left Sedgefield's greens soft and its leaderboard crowded.

It was quite the encouraging start for Atwal, who lost his tour card last month and had to play his way into this event in a Monday qualifier across town at Forest Oaks Country Club, where this tournament was held from 1977-2007.

He played that course twice before, finishing sixth in 2004, and wound up shooting a 67 to share first place with three other qualifiers. No Monday qualifier has won a tournament since Fred Wadsworth did it at the 1986 Southern Open.

"You get used to making a lot of birdies in the Monday qualifier — otherwise you won't make it," Atwal said. "I kind of continued that today."

The loss of his card capped a series of events that began when he injured his shoulders last year while lifting weights. He received a minor medical extension, but when he came up short on the money list following the RBC Canadian Open, his card was history.

He started his bogey-free round on the back nine, made the turn at 4 under and birdied three of his final four holes, sinking a 7-foot putt on No. 9 to cap things.

His big day also included a rare birdie on the peskiest hole of the day: No. 18.

There were a course-low 10 birdies and a course-high 54 bogeys on the freshly lengthened, 507-yard par-4 that wound up knocking several players down a peg on the leaderboard.

— Jay Williamson, who birdied four of his first five holes to move to 6 under through 17, was on the 18th green in two shots but "just hit a terrible first putt" and ultimately three-putted for his second bogey of the round. He finished at 65.

— John Mallinger, who had vaulted up the leaderboard with three straight birdies midway through his back nine, birdied No. 17 to move to 6 under before finishing his 65 with a three-putt bogey.

— Toms had three straight birdies on Nos. 15-17 to go to 7 under. He recovered after sending his second shot into a greenside bunker, only to roll his par putt past the hole and bogey the hole.

— Snedeker, who was at 8 under through 17, sent his second shot onto the back fringe, chipped well past the pin and left his 35-foot par putt about 3 feet short to close with a bogey and fall off the lead.

That put a slight damper on a brilliant back nine for Snedeker, the 2007 Greensboro winner who had six birdies in a seven-hole stretch, including five in a row on Nos. 13-17.

"I realized that it's going to be a long tournament, a long week," Snedeker said. "A guy that shoots 9 under's not going to shoot 9 under for four straight rounds, so it's going to be kind of, wait until you get hot, and when you get hot, take advantage of it, and when you don't, try to minimize your mistakes. I got hot on the back nine, took advantage of it, made a lot of birdies and hopefully, I can keep that rolling into tomorrow morning. It's just a long week."

DIVOTS: Local favorite Brandan Gielow, who graduated from nearby Wake Forest, had a hole-in-one on the 164-yard, par-3 No. 6. ... Matt Bettencourt (wrist injury) withdrew midway through his round.

Woods commits to first FedEx Cup playoff event

SUNRIVER, Ore. (AP) — The final two holes at Crosswater Club have historically played as the most difficult during the Jeld-Wen Tradition. Not on Thursday for D.A. Weibring.

Weibring rallied with birdies at Nos. 17 and 18 to shoot a 5-under 67 and share the first-round lead with Tom Lehman at the fourth of five majors on the Champions Tour.

Weibring made his lone bogey of the day at the par-4, 468-yard 14th to slip to 3 under. But Weibring wiped that out and more by making a 12-foot birdie putt at the 244-yard, par-3 17th, and then an 8-footer for birdie at the par-4, 456-yard 18th.

"You don't normally plan on making birdies at 17 and 18," said Weibring, whose last Champions Tour win came in the 2008 Seniors Players Championship.

Weibring, ranked 49th in Champions Tour earnings in 2010, said he's "a day in, day out" proposition in the tournament, depending on whether a bone spur in his left shoulder causes pain. He has had some Tradition success at Crosswater Club, finishing third in 2007.

Like Weibring, Lehman mastered the final hole, which yielded just six birdies Thursday. He made a 30-footer at 18 to pull even with Weibring for the lead. It was typical of Lehman's day, with good putting making up for poor iron play. Five of Lehman's six birdie putts ranged from 15 to 30 feet.

"The irons some days feel like a spatula in your hand. I hit very few good shots," Lehman said. "If I hadn't had a good putting round, it would have a very mediocre day."

Weibring and Lehman by no means separated themselves from others on the leaderboard. Nearly one-third of the 66-man field is within two strokes of the lead. A total of 36 players broke par at the 7,533-yard Crosswater Club.

Lehman said he expected that someone would fire a low score because Crosswater's fairways and greens were soft due to rain from a thunderstorm earlier in the week.

"There are opportunities out there, and the guys out here are good and will take advantage," Lehman said.

Five players shot 68, one stroke behind the co-leaders. Among that group is Corey Pavin, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, who made an eagle at the par-4 10th by holing a 163-yard 8-iron.

Also at 68 is 2008 Tradition champion Fred Funk, Bob Gilder, Fulton Allem and Gil Morgan. The unlikeliest of that group is Allem, who is ranked 91st in Champions Tour earnings this season.

Allem, who is scheduled to undergo back surgery in December, said he's still a capable player, depending on his health.

"If I wake up and I can touch my toes, I've got a chance," said Allem, who reached 5 under before making a bogey at No. 17.

Funk, who has five Champions Tour wins in five seasons, but none in 2010, seems to come alive at Crosswater. In 13 Tradition rounds at Crosswater, Funk is 39 under par.

"You've got to be careful out here, and I've done a good job at that," Funk said.

Bernhard Langer, the tour's season earnings and Charles Schwab Cup leader, was among 13 players at 69. Aiming to become the second player in Champions Tour history to win three consecutive majors, he made three birdies on the back nine to overcome an even-par front side.

Langer comes into the Tradition having won the Senior British Open and U.S. Senior Open during the past month.

Others at 69 include Hale Irwin, Mark Calcavecchia, Loren Roberts and Bobby Clampett.

Heading a group of five players at 70 is Andy Bean and Bob Tway. Tom Watson and Nick Price were among 11 players to shoot 71.

Defending Tradition champion Mike Reid had an awful day, shooting a 7-over par 79. Only one player scored worse, Phil Blackmar with an 81.

Two prominent players missing from the field are Fred Couples and Paul Azinger. Couples, ranked second in the Schwab Cup standings, opted to play in this week's PGA Tour event, the Wyndham Championship. Azinger was disqualified after failing to show for Tuesday's pro-am.

LPGA

Just a few days later, at the Canadian Women's Open, fans were congratulating the South Korean golfer and asking for her autograph. It simply didn't occur to Hur that she was famous.

"Some in the gallery have my picture and say 'Can I get an autograph?' Already! Like after only one or two days!" she said.

It was Hur's first win on the LPGA Tour, and only since. She beat Suzann Pettersen with a birdie on the second hole of a playoff at the tournament west of Portland. Michele Redman was eliminated on the first extra hole.

She remembers watching Pettersen and Redmen birdie the No. 17 hole, knowing the trio was headed for the playoff.

"I feel very nervous but in a different way, like very confident: 'I can hit this ball straight.' Seemed like the same as practice," she recalled.

This year's Safeway Classic starts Friday at the 6,546-yard, par-72 Ghost Creek Course at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, about a 20 minute drive from Portland. It is the tournament's second-year on the rural course at the base of the Coastal Range after 19 years at Columbia Edgewater County Club.

Cristie Kerr won in 2008 at Columbia Edgewater, beating Helen Alfredsson and Sophie Gustafson with a 15-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole.

Kerr, who won the State Farm Classic and LPGA Championship in June, just became the top-ranked player in the world while taking time off after the Women's British Open. She didn't even know about it until some friends e-mailed her.

Kerr, who was also ranked No. 1 earlier this year, wants to hold on to her status this time.

"There's a lot of people contending for No. 1 in the world this year. And to be able to stay there I've just got to play well and every week just be consistent," she said. "That's my goal for the rest of the year."

Others in the Safeway Classic field include Yani Tseng, who won her third major championship trophy two weeks ago at Royal Birkdale, and Michelle Wie, looking for her second victory after taking last year's the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. Fan favorite Natalie Gulbis had to withdraw because of ongoing back trouble.

Hur earned followers in Portland for her graciousness in victory last year. Long after her tournament-winning birdie — after addressing reporters, posing for pictures and shaking hands with sponsors — she returned to the 18th green and signed autographs for the lingering spectators.

Her best finish this season was a tie for second at the ShopRite LPGA Classic in New Jersey in June.

She says she's more than ready to win again and has been practicing for the past couple of weeks in Florida. The issue lately is fading in the later rounds, she explained.

"My goal this year is one more win, because I think after I have one more win I can get more and more, like every year," she said.

-- Anne M. Peterson