FIRST ROUND LEADERBOARD:
-6 P Goydos (US), S Marino (US), S Garcia (Spa) -5 C Hoffman (US), W Simpson (US), F Jacobson (Swe), H Slocum (US) -4 P Harrington (Ire), I Poulter (Eng), D Toms (US) Selected others: -1 T Woods (US), S Cink (US), P Mickelson (US) Level G Owen (Eng), YE Yang (Kor) +1 E Els (SA) +2 B Davis (Eng), J Rose (Eng), L Donald (Eng) +4 V Singh (Fij)
 Garcia fired seven birdies to share the overnight lead |
Sergio Garcia held a share of the lead after the first round of the PGA Tour's Barclays Classic at Liberty National. The Spaniard fired a six-under 65 alongside Americans Paul Goydos and Steve Marino, while Tiger Woods was five shots adrift after a round of 70. Irishman Padraig Harrington and England's Ian Poulter finished two shots off the lead, with Phil Mickelson level with Woods and Stewart Cink. The tournament is the first leg of the four-event FedEx Cup play-off series. Garcia, who let a three-shot lead slip in the final round of the Wyndham Championship on Sunday, hit seven birdies and one bogey to make a strong start.  | 606: DEBATE |
"I drove the ball nicely, hit a lot of good iron shots and made a couple of birdie putts here and there. So overall, a good, solid day," said the Spaniard, who scraped into the 120-man field after his fourth-place finish at Greensboro. One stroke behind the co-leaders were Sweden's Fredrik Jacobson and Americans Webb Simpson, Heath Slocum and Charley Hoffman. Harrington managed a bogey-free round of 67, while Poulter eagled the par-four 5th on his back nine and added a third birdie on the 7th to climb into contention alongside American David Toms. "I'm thrilled with it," said Harrington. "It really is a testing, intimidating golf course - and to break 70... if I can continue that this week, I'll be a very happy man." Woods managed to hit just nine fairways in his first round as he struggled off the tee, with bad drives costing him a bogey on the par-four 7th and denying him birdies on the par-five 6th and 8th. "You've got to make hay on the par fives here," he said. "You don't get too many opportunities around this place and I only made one birdie on the par fives." World number two Mickelson, a member of the exclusive course laid out on the waterfront across from the Statue of Liberty, made four bogeys and five birdies as he rallied after the turn to keep in touch. Fiji's defending FedEx Cup champion Vijay Singh had two double bogeys in an opening 75. Woods leads the FedEx Cup standings with points accrued during the regular season counting for the first three play-off events. The top 100 players on the points list after the Barclays will compete at the Deutsche Bank Championship (4-7 Sept), with 70 going on to the BMW Championship (10-13 Sept) and the final 30 contesting the Tour Championship (24-27 Sept).
| 
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
Bookmark with:
What are these?