Two atop Zurich Classic
Weekley, de Jonge lead after Round 1
Boo Weekley solved his uncharacteristic ball-striking problems with new shafts.
A day after changing the shafts in his irons, Weekley shot an 8-under 64 Thursday in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans for a share of the first-round lead with Brendon de Jonge.
“You go to tinkering around with clubs and you finally find a shaft, and [True Temper] finally stepped up and built me a set of clubs and they worked,” said Weekley, the three-time PGA Tour winner who missed the cuts in four of his past six tournaments. “I’ve been missing something in my game, and it was because I [haven’t] been able to control my irons. It just starts messing with you mentally.”
Weekley had an eagle, seven birdies and a bogey at rain-softened TPC Louisiana in Avondale, La. De Jonge, from Zimbabwe, had eight birdies in a bogey-free round.
Sean O’Hair and Canada’s David Hearn shot 65 on the Pete Dye-designed layout.
Tour rookie Mark Hubbard had five consecutive birdies in the middle of his round and finished with a 66. He was tied with Erik Compton, Brian Davis, Greg Owen and Daniel Berger.
Dustin Johnson, ranked No. 7 in the world, was at 67 in a large group that included former Zurich winner K.J. Choi and Jason Day, the highestranked player in the field at No. 6.
Players were able to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairways in anticipation of afternoon rain, which eventually developed and halted play for 1 hour, 18 minutes.
Weekley eagled the par-5 second hole and added birdies on the fifth and eighth holes. He bogeyed the ninth, but rallied with birdies on Nos. 11-13 and closed with a birdie on the par-5 18th.
“I felt like if the putts would have fallen that I hit, I felt like it could have been a 59 easy,” Weekley said after posting his lowest score in more than two years.
De Jonge, starting on the back nine, birdied three in a row after a par on his first hole and made the turn at 4 under. He had four consecutive birdies on the back, but failed to birdie the par-5 eighth.
Other tournaments
Swinging Skirts Classic: Lydia Ko settled for a tap-in birdie on the par-5 14th after her eagle chip deflected off the pin and the defending champion shot a 5-under 67 to take the first-round lead in the LPGA event in Daly City, Calif. Top-ranked Ko, who turns 18 today, holds a onestroke lead on three others, including Juli Inkster.
China Open: New Zeland’s Michael Hendry, Wales’ Bradley Dredge and England’s David Howell shot 4-under 68 to share the first-round lead in the European Tour event in Shanghai. Hendry and Dredge were the only players with bogey-free rounds.