PONTE VEDRA SHORE, Fla. (AP) — Roberto Castro made a debut he won't soon forget within the Players Championship, opening which has a 9-under 63 Thursday to help tie the course record within the TPC Sawgrass and build a three-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and also other early starters.
Facing that infamous island-green on No. 17 for the novice in competition, Castro left a 9-iron inside of a foot of the damaged spot. On the daunting eighteenth, he hit 4-iron for a foot. When his working day was over, Castro is at the record book with Greg Norman and Tom Couples for lowest score in the Stadium Course.
The two-time major safe bet had never made the cut and even broken par at This Players Championship, but the 24-year-old figured it out on a gorgeous morning by dialing it keep your distance the tee and permitting his iron play take control. McIlroy never came seriously in close proximity to a bogey on his technique to a 66, leaving him tied with Zach Johnson.
McIlroy didn't hit driver once to the front nine, including a par-5 ninth. He invented his mind during practice he gets into more trouble trying to reach the green around two, so he is playing short and using his wedge. He always made par on Simply no. 9, but he caught to his strategy.
"When you hit the shots, this indicates very simple, " McIlroy talked about. "I had a great deal of good shots out generally there, lot of iron shots that 12, 15 feet away through the pin and I got myself a lot of looks for birdies. I adopted maybe more on the conservative strategy off the tee this year. But once you put your ball inside the fairway that means entirely more aggressive into the greens. So it a little like balances itself out. "
Among those playing within the afternoon were Tiger Materials, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh, who might be under more scrutiny than ever. Singh shook the event on Wednesday when he filed a lawsuit against the PGA Tour for what he proclaimed was a rush to judgment in trying to suspend him for a particular anti-doping violation. Singh sued merely one week after the visit dropped its case.
One man standing within the bleachers around the primary tee was wearing deer antlers. Singh revealed using deer antler squirt, which led to that tour's investigation.
Masters winner Adam Scott didn't neglect a beat from your partner's last competitive round, your rainy Sunday at Augusta State. He missed only a few fairways and two greens in a very tidy round of 69. His only disappointment was not getting introduced as that Masters champion.
Scott together with McIlroy were joined as a result of Steve Stricker, who made six birdies instead of once had honors relating to the tee — Stricker and McIlroy made birdies for a passing fancy six holes. Stricker appeared with a 67, and Hunter Mahan and Casey Wittenberg.
The Arena Course has rarely become this vulnerable, with barely a trace of wind plus some pins in bowls that allowed for good looks at birdie. Half the 72 players in the morning broke par.
But the punishment is never far away, as Scott Stallings uncovered. He opened with five straight birdies to find everyone's attention, but after heading out in 31, Stallings gave the majority of it back with a good bogey, double bogey as well as a triple bogey on your 16th when he hit two balls in the water. He shot 40 relating to the back for a 71.
He made three birdies premature in his round on the back until making his tap-in birdies on the 17th and 18th. After that, he hit 3-iron into 3 feet on the par-5 second hole for any eagle and was 7-under by way of 11 holes. On a fourth, he hit your partner's approach inside 2 ft for another birdie, and he hit wedge to 18 inches in the sixth.
After his eagle over the second hole — his 11th within the round — Castro was reminded on the game he plays to attempt to birdie every other golf hole.
"When I eagled, I was like, 'Oh, now i'm 7 (under) through 11, so that's keeping ahead of that 50 percent amount. ' But this is mostly a different golf course, " he said. "The golf course is noticeably harder than the majority of the other times I've type taken that attitude. inches
Couples shot his 63 in 1992 in the third round. Norman opened by having a 63 in 1994 when he continued to shatter the contest record at 24-under 264. Castro insert himself in good business, two players in the modern world Golf Hall of Reputation, and two winners with the Players Championship. Not unhealthy for a 27-year-old in simply his second year over the PGA Tour.
Castro isn't well known even within golf circles. His mother spent my youth in Peru and moved to America being teenager along with the girl sister, Jenny Lidback, who played the LPGA Visit. He toiled in that minor leagues for a few years after getting her industrial engineering degree at Georgia Tech.
"It gets proven out here once a week, " Castro said. "Derek Ernst won yesterday morning in his eighth event without any one ever heard involving him. There are many good players out here. "
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