Weekley co- leads in New Orleans
Boo Weekley solved his uncharacteristic ballstriking problems with new shafts.
A day after changing the shafts in his irons, Weekley shot an 8- under 64 on Thursday at 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, a 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. De Jonge, from Zimbabwe, had eight birdies in a bogeyfree 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 highest- ranked player in the field at No. 6.
Players were allowed to lift, clean and place their balls in anticipation of showers that arrived in mid- afternoon, suspending play for 1 hour, 18 minutes. A calm wind for much of the day along with soft greens left the course defenseless.
“Hopefully, the weather ( Friday) will be good,” Day said after a round in which he hit two balls into the water on the par- 3 third for a doublebogey 5 and followed with a bogey on the fourth hole. “It will be good to see the course dry out, and obviously when the weather comes in, it’s no fun for anyone.” European Tour: New Zealand’s Michael Hendry, Wales’ Bradley Dredge and England’s David Howell each shot 4- under 68 in difficult conditions to top the leaderboard after the first round of the Volvo China Open in Shanghai.