Golfweek - Golf News Magazine

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN ANTONIO — Nathan Green got off to a rocky start Thursday in the Texas Open. It ended up jump-starting the best round of the Australian’s PGA Tour career.

“I didn’t feel really good before the round started and then on the first hole I snapped my drive. It hit a rock and bounced back in the fairway,” Green said. “From there, everything went pretty well.”

Winless in three seasons on the PGA Tour, Green birdied nine of the first 16 holes before dropping a stroke on the par-3 17th and closing with a par for an 8-under 62 and a two-stroke lead over Olin Browne and Paul Claxton.

Claxton and Browne, a three-time Tour winner, had bogey-free 64s in sunny and warm conditions on La Cantera Golf Club’s Resort Course.

“This course is right up my alley,” said Browne, who tied for second in the 2005 tournament. “I hit every green and only had one shaky putt.”

Tim Herron, Greg Kraft, Patrick Sheehan, Jason Gore, Nick O’Hern and Chad Collins opened with 65s, and Paul Goydos and Bob Tway topped a group at 66.

Defending champion Justin Leonard, the former University of Texas star seeking a record fourth victory in the event, shot a 70.

“I hit the ball pretty well off the tee, but didn’t make any putts,” Leonard said. “The greens weren’t as good as they have been, but they were good enough to make putts.”

Green shot a 5-under 30 on the front nine, then pulled away from the field with birdies on No. 2 10, 13, 14 and 16 for a four-shot lead.

“It was just one of those days were everything went right,” said Green, who tied for second in the 2006 Buick Invitational for his best PGA Tour finish. “’’I had two months were I couldn’t seem to get anything right, so this was nice to see.”

Green recently moved to the Dallas suburb of McKinney to ease his travel burdens and said playing in his adopted home state was a relief.

“I’m not a big fan of planes, so we drove down here Tuesday and it was very relaxing,” Green said.

Starting at the par-4 sixth hole, he birdied five holes in a row with putts all 15 feet or shorter. His longest putt of the day came on the par 4 16th, when he rolled in a 24-foot birdie try.

Herron won the 1997 tournament.

“I don’t have any problems with conjuring up good memories here,” Herron said. “Of course, I made some putts, which helps as well.”

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Scores with relation to par from the first round of the Valero Texas Open, played Oct. 9 at the par-70, 6,881-yard LaCantera Golf Club (Resort) in San Antonio:

1. Nathan Green	62		-8
2. Olin Browne	64		-6
2. Paul Claxton	64		-6
4. Greg Kraft	65		-5
4. Tim Herron	65		-5
4. Patrick Sheehan	65		-5
4. Jason Gore	65		-5
4. Nick O'Hern	65		-5
4. Chad Collins	65		-5
10. Michael Bradley	66		-4
10. Steve Allan	66		-4
10. Tag Ridings	66		-4
10. Joe Ogilvie	66		-4
10. Bob Tway	66		-4
10. Alejandro Canizares	66		-4
10. Todd Demsey	66		-4
10. Paul Goydos	66		-4
10. Kyle Thompson	66		-4
10. Chris Stroud	66		-4
20. Jim McGovern	67		-3
20. Nick Watney	67		-3
20. Dustin Johnson	67		-3
20. Charlie Wi	67		-3
20. Martin Laird	67		-3
20. Chez Reavie	67		-3
20. Rory Sabbatini	67		-3
20. Tim Wilkinson	67		-3
20. Mathew Goggin	67		-3
20. Kevin Stadler	67		-3
20. Tim Petrovic	67		-3
20. Jimmy Walker	67		-3
32. John Riegger	68		-2
32. Steve Elkington	68		-2
32. Brian Gay	68		-2
32. Stephen Ames	68		-2
32. Charley Hoffman	68		-2
32. Troy Matteson	68		-2
32. Mark Hensby	68		-2
32. Brad Elder	68		-2
32. Gavin Coles	68		-2
32. Tommy Gainey	68		-2
32. Bob Estes	68		-2
32. Bo Van Pelt	68		-2
32. Scott Verplank	68		-2
32. Joe Durant	68		-2
32. Mark Wilson	68		-2
32. David Toms	68		-2
32. Charles Howell III	68		-2
32. Chris DiMarco	68		-2
32. Steve Marino	68		-2
32. Nick Flanagan	68		-2
32. J.L. Lewis	68		-2
32. Bob Sowards	68		-2
32. Jason Allred	68		-2
32. Michael H. Thompson	68		-2
56. Shane Bertsch	69		-1
56. Ben Crane	69		-1
56. Jeff Overton	69		-1
56. Davis Love III	69		-1
56. Frank Lickliter II	69		-1
56. Doug LaBelle II	69		-1
56. Scott Sterling	69		-1
56. Andrew Buckle	69		-1
56. Matt Jones	69		-1
56. Harrison Frazar	69		-1
56. Carlos Franco	69		-1
56. David Ogrin	69		-1
56. Zach Johnson	69		-1
56. Craig Kanada	69		-1
56. Jhonattan Vegas	69		-1
71. Brenden Pappas	70		E
71. Tom Pernice, Jr.	70		E
71. Mathias Gronberg	70		E
71. Justin Leonard	70		E
71. Richard S. Johnson	70		E
71. J.J. Henry	70		E
71. Rod Pampling	70		E
71. Vaughn Taylor	70		E
71. Brett Rumford	70		E
71. Marc Turnesa	70		E
71. Brandt Jobe	70		E
71. Kevin Streelman	70		E
71. Omar Uresti	70		E
71. Peter Lonard	70		E
71. Jeff Gove	70		E
71. Robert Gamez	70		E
71. Ryan Armour	70		E
71. Bob Heintz	70		E
89. Tommy Armour III	71	+	1
89. Dean Wilson	71	+	1
89. David Duval	71	+	1
89. Jason Dufner	71	+	1
89. Jon Mills	71	+	1
89. Cody Freeman	71	+	1
89. Pat Perez	71	+	1
89. Kent Jones	71	+	1
89. Chad Campbell	71	+	1
89. Jerry Kelly	71	+	1
89. Ron Whittaker	71	+	1
89. Richard Johnson	71	+	1
101. Rich Beem	72	+	2
101. Tom Scherrer	72	+	2
101. Ted Purdy	72	+	2
101. J.P. Hayes	72	+	2
101. Jay Williamson	72	+	2
101. Sean O'Hair	72	+	2
101. Heath Slocum	72	+	2
101. Lee Janzen	72	+	2
101. Ryan Palmer	72	+	2
101. Nicholas Thompson	72	+	2
111. Parker McLachlin	73	+	3
111. Phil Tataurangi	73	+	3
111. Lonny Alexander	73	+	3
111. Y.E. Yang	73	+	3
111. Bruce Smith	73	+	3
111. Jesper Parnevik	73	+	3
111. Jeff Maggert	73	+	3
111. John Senden	73	+	3
111. Jin Park	73	+	3
111. Kenneth Ferrie	73	+	3
111. Kevin Chappell	73	+	3
122. Matt Kuchar	74	+	4
122. Cameron Beckman	74	+	4
122. Travis Perkins	74	+	4
125. Eric Axley	75	+	5
125. Brad Adamonis	75	+	5
127. Jason Day	77	+	7
127. David Lutterus	77	+	7
129. Billy Andrade	78	+	8
130. Marco Dawson	79	+	9
WD. Robert Garrigus	76-WD
DQ. Brian Davis	DQ

Posted: 10/9/2008

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