Hunter Mahan shot an 8-under-par 62 on Thursday to take the first-round lead at the Travelers Championship before play was suspended with 40 golfers still on the course in Cromwell, Conn.
For Mahan, who finished second there last year, the round was one stroke off the course record and it was his sixth consecutive round in the 60s at the TPC at River Highlands.
“It’s one of the courses that you look at it and you feel comfortable,” Mahan said. “There’s not really a shot here that I worry about.”
Mahan shot a 31 on his first nine holes, made par at 10, then birdied his next four holes.
A rain delay of over an hour didn’t seem to faze him, as he came back out and birdied 17.
“I hit my driver great, put the ball in play,” he said. “I hit a lot of good irons and wedges.”
That run allowed him to overtake early leader Chris DiMarco, who shot a 64 despite an ailing shoulder.
DiMarco, who hasn’t won on tour since 2002, has been playing with arthritis, tendinitis and a bone spur in his left shoulder for about three months.
He said two recent cortisone shots and a slight adjustment to his swing seemed to ease his pain, and allow him to focus on golf.
The 64 was his best round of the season.
“It felt a lot better out there today,” he said. “Three weeks ago, every shot I hit, whether it was a 70-yard lob wedge or whatever, it would pop.”
Five golfers finished at 65, including tour rookie Michael Sim, a 22-year-old from Australia, who shot 29 on his closing nine.
“You know how it is, once you get on a roll, you just make birdies,” Sim said.
When play was suspended for the rainy day around 7 p.m., 13 groups were still on the course. Sixty-two golfers were under par, a far cry from last week’s U.S. Open, where there were eight sub-par rounds all week.
“This is what golf should be,” DiMarco said. “It shouldn’t be about plus 20s and plus 25s. I think the fans, if we started doing that every week, I think we would lose our fans. I think they want to see us make birdies.”
LPGA: Cristie Kerr, comforted by a new putter as she battled a head cold, opened with a 6-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead in the storm-delayed Wegmans LPGA in Pittsford, N.Y.
“I’ll buy every single putter I ever play with if I can putt like that,” the nine-time tour winner said of her 26-putt round at the tree-lined Locust Hill course. “I feel like my game is coming around.”
Canada’s Alena Sharp, showing steady progress in her third year on tour, ran off seven birdies and two bogeys to shoot 67.
She was one better than Norway’s Suzann Pettersen, who captured her first major title at the LPGA Championship two weeks ago.
Top-ranked Lorena Ochoa, who won here in 2005, was tied for fourth at 3-under with Brittany Lincicome and Mi Hyun Kim. Defending champion Jeong Jang carded a 71, while 50-year-old Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez slumped to an 82.
PGA European Tour: Jose-Filipe Lima and Raphael Jacquelin shot 7-under 65s for a one-stroke lead after the first round of the BMW International Open in Munich, Germany.
