Gavin hopeful, Danny stumbles
GAVIN Green was a frustrated man at the CIMB Classic yesterday after opening his tournament with a one-under 71 despite looking poised for a good score at the TPC Kuala Lumpur.
The Rio Olympian reached three-under after 10 holes before going on to bogey three of his next six holes to leave him shaking his head on his tournament debut.
Playing his second consecutive US PGA Tour tournament after missing the cut at the Safeway Open in California last week, Gavin also eagled the par-five fifth hole and added four birdies but ruined his round with five bogeys, including all four of the parthrees.
“I got off to a little shaky start, but I kind of recovered well,” said Gavin, who birdied the 17th after bogeying the preceding two holes.
“I kept myself in play and I just missed a bunch of putts out there. I misread them and I think a little bit of the jet-lag kind of kicked in. Under-par round, no practice round, it’s okay. I’ll take it.”
Describing his eagle on the fifth, Gavin said that came as a pleasant surprise as he reached the green in two at the hole measuring 518 yards.
“It was a decent tee shot. I kept it in play,” said Gavin, who ended seven strokes behind the leaders. “You know, second shot, just put it in the middle of the green and saw the putt.
“I didn’t expect the eagle, but I just thought, give it a chance. If not, then you make birdie. Just lucky enough, it went in. And then back nine, I didn’t make much putts. I struggled a little bit on the back nine, yeah.”
Gavin said he will have to play the par-threes better today to move up the leaderboard.
“I struggled a little bit (on the par-threes), but I’ll get it tomorrow,” he said.
“We miss-clubbed a couple and misjudged the wind a little bit, but it’s okay. Still got three more days. I’ll just stay positive and we’ll just move on.”
Danny Chia, Malaysia’s topranked golfer, had a round to forget after a six-over 77 had him placed second-to-last.
A roller-coaster front nine saw Danny mix three birdies with two bogeys and a double-bogey on par-five seventh hole before adding four more bogeys between the 11th and 15th holes.