Shell Houston Open. D.A. Points the Way

D.A. Points leads after the first round of the Shell Houston Open at the Redstone Golf  Course, Tournament Course, in Humble  Texas.

D.A. Points / Getty Images

Darren Andrew Points fired in a first round of -8 under par 64, to lead the Shell Houston Open after the first round today in Texas, and has a one-shot lead over Cameron Tringale and John Rollins.

Darren was using a Ping Anser he first borrowed from his mother during his junior years, he thinks he should have been using all the time;

” Maybe I’m an idiot for not having used this putter the whole time, it worked well today. It’s one of those things, I holed some nice par putts yesterday in my pro-am. I didn’t hit it great, but I made a few good putts and the ball was going in the hole with nice pace and rolling real tight. And I thought, `All right, this might be the key that kind of gets me going.”

John Rollins managed a -7 under par 65 in the windier conditions in the afternoon, John said he gave himself a lot of opportunities in the tougher weather;

“I knew the conditions were going to be tough out there, knew the greens were fast, so that makes it tough as well. I just kept the ball in front of me and gave myself a lot of opportunities and got a solid round out of it.”

Rory McIlroy finished a disappointing round at +1 over par, he said;

“I felt like on the front nine I was a little tentative. I just tried to commit to myself a little more on the back nine and it seemed to help. If I could have got it back to even par, I would have been pretty happy, but I’m one over par and, hopefully, the conditions are a little calmer tomorrow morning. I think I learned from that over the last few weeks, I’ve got to keep my spirits up. I felt like I was doing that a bit too much at the Match Play and The Honda, and obviously we saw what happened there.”

Lets hope that Rory can make the cut, another miss would certainly set the alarm bells ringing.

Phil Mickelson was another who did not perform too well, finishing double-bogey, bogey, bogey to end up at even par. He was unhappy with today’s performance, and also spoke about not playing the week before Augusta;

“It was a disappointing finish, I feel really good with the putter, and I believe that as the tournament goes on, I’ll get better. It’s a very unusual situation for me here. I usually like to play the week before. I’m going to have to learn how to do that, now that we’re not really having tournaments conducive to getting ready for those events. This is a good opportunity for me to work on getting prepared properly in another spot outside of a tournament.”

Arnold Palmer Invitational. Rosey Rises to The Top.

Englishman Justin Rose fired in a first round -7 under par 65, and rose to the top of the leaderboard, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, leading the field by two shots.

Justin Rose / Cannon / Getty Images

Justin was playing in the group with Tiger Woods at Bay Hill on Thursday, he  put on a clinic with the putter and ran off four straight birdies late in his round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, presented by MasterCard.

Justin did not see this coming, saying;

“If you had said I would shoot a 65 on the range this morning, I would have probably said, `How many holes have I played?’ And that didn’t change much, the first five, six holes out there were a grind.”

The difference today was Justin’s putting;

“ I dedicated myself at making a few changes and getting better at that part of the game. I’ve had some good days, no doubt. And today was probably the first real hot day I’ve had with the blade in a long, long time. We all know it’s about consistency and that’s what I’m still working towards. It’s just fun to know that I obviously can do it, and I enjoy a lot of confidence from that.”

John Huh is in second place, at -5 under par, he  had a chance to catch Justin late in the afternoon, but required a birdie on the final hole to do so. Unfortunately John found a fairway bunker on No. 9 and took a bogey for a -5 under par round of 67.

John Rollins and Brad Fritsch were at -4 under par with rounds of 68, to be tied in third place.

Tiger Woods had two uncharacteristic bogeys from greenside bunkers and definitely did not  hit the ball as well as he did when he won The Honda Classic two weeks ago. It was his putting that kept his round reasonable, tied in fifth place after a round of -3 under par, 69.

“It was one of my good ones, days happen like this. It was cool this morning, and it just didn’t work out. But I scored well, and I kept myself in the tournament. I’m right there. Justin played a beautiful round of golf today. He had every single facet of his game working, so we had a good time out there. I got a lot out of this round, and I threw away a few shots as well.”

USPGA Tour, Travelers Championship @ TPC River Highlands, Connecticut

                                             

                               Roland Thatcher and Brian Davis /Rogash/Getty Images

Brian Davis shot 64 and Roland Thatcher 65 to get to -12 under par for the two rounds played at US PGA Tour Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut. These guys are two shots clear of John Rollins, James Driscoll and Stuart Appleby, who are all handily placed tied for second spot on -10 under par.

Roland was candid about his golf;

” I’m in good position through two rounds, and hopefully I can do something special here over the weekend. Unfortunately, I’m probably the least consistent player on this Tour, so whenever I go out and miss five, six cuts in a row, that doesn’t really surprise anybody, nor should it surprise anybody that occasionally I put together four rounds. So hopefully this is one of those weeks where I make a lot of money in a very short amount of time.”

Four of the last six winners of the Travelers Championship were first-time winners on the PGA Tour, and James Driscoll, who finished fifth here a year ago, has also yet to win a PGA Tour event. At aged eighteen, James became the youngest ever winner of the Massachusetts State Amateur, and now more than a decade later, he is still looking for his first Tour win. James is happy to be where he is, and thinks it would be great, being a native New Englander to win this tournament;

” It feels good. It’s kind of like last year. I’m in a similar position. I’ll probably be in one of the last few groups, so it’s an exciting place to be.  It would be great. It’s fun just to be there in contention and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get some friends and family out there to support me and hopefully I can play well for them.”

Stuart Appleby was also pleased to be playing some good golf;

” Conditions are easier in the morning,  bit of a breeze today. I’m not sure if they’re going to get breeze in the afternoon. You could see lower scores than yesterday’s afternoon.”

Stuart also spoke about the improvement in his golf game;

” It’s better. I mean I’m thinking better. I’m getting better. I mean it’s really a crumbling wreck, my game. I wasn’t hitting it any good and I wasn’t thinking any good and I was just really finding it very hard. All self-induced issues. I had a back injury that was affecting my swing, not hurting me, and that seemed to make it hard to get on top of that most of last year, or all of last year. Body and mind is a lot better, and if you get those two right, you play better golf. “

Charging along at -9 under par is two times Major winner Padraig Harrington, who had a second round of  -5 under par, 65, and is also very much in this championship.

Bubba Watson got his first career victory here in 2010, he is currently at -8 under par after a round of  65 today, Bubba has good and bad memories of this tournament;

“For me, my first win here, announcing that my dad was about to pass away of cancer, there’s up and down moments at this place. But they’ve always treated me well. I’m going to have to shoot a low number. It will be fun. They’re going to have to slow down for me to catch them. “

Kyle Stanley builds five-shot lead at Torrey Pines

Kyle Stanley  opened a five-shot lead in the Farmers Insurance Open on Saturday. even though  he missed a 4-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole that would have broken the 54-hole tournament record set by Tiger Woods in 1998. That record of course was set before Rees Jones beefed up the South Course for the 2008 U.S. Open.  On the 526-yard 13th hole Kyle blasted a tee shot so far down the hill that he only needed a soft 7-iron into the green, leaving the ball just 15 feet below the hole just on the fringe leading to a two-putt birdie. On seeing the tee shot his playing partner Sang-moon Bae turned to him and said with a smile; ”Are you playing this as a par 4?”

Kyle’s round of 68 gave him a 54 hole total of -18 under par and feeling happy with his days work;  ” This is something you dream about as a kid. But there’s still one more round. I’m very pleased, I’m putting really well and driving it well and hitting my irons well. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, I’m pretty relaxed, pretty comfortable and I really like this golf course.

 

Dunn/Getty Images

Kyle Stanley’s nearest challengers are John Huh and John Rollins, both a daunting five shots off the top at -13 under par for the tournament.

It will be interesting to see if Kyle can remain cool, calm and collected in the final round