Given his choice, Tiger Woods likes to see a golf course as difficult as possible.
It didn’t take long to figure out that wouldn’t be the case Thursday at the Tour Championship, the final playoff event for the FedEx Cup that felt more like preseason considering the marshmallow conditions at East Lake Golf Club.
His wedge to the first green left more of a crater than a pitch mark. And after nearly making an ace on the sixth hole for his fourth birdie of the rain-softened round, a scoreboard showed Tim Clark already was 8-under par and threatening the course record.
Clark was among only 10 players who finished the first round because of a three-hour storm delay that made the slow greens even softer, closing with three consecutive pars and still posting an 8-under-par 62 to tie the course record at East Lake.
“They’re obviously not to the standard that we’re used to on tour,” Clark said of the greens. “Being one of the first groups out there was probably an advantage. We didn’t have the footprints.”
East Lake was incapable of challenging anyone in the finale to the FedEx Cup.
Only five players were over par when the first round was suspended by darkness, none worse than 1-over. Even though he tied the course record, Clark still had only a one-shot advantage over British Open champion Padraig Harrington.
Woods, who can capture the FedEx Cup and its $10 million prize with a victory at the Tour Championship, was at 4-under through 11 holes and could face the smoothness of greens Clark and Harrington experienced.
“I made a couple putts – I don’t know how,” Woods said while loading his clubs into his car. “I hit them up there and they bounced all over the place and somehow went in.”
Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson, who are chasing Woods in the FedEx Cup, probably need to find another gear.
Stricker, playing in the final pairing with Woods, was at 1-over through 11 holes.
Mickelson was closer to the lake on the ninth hole than the fairway on the first hole with his opening tee shot, which led to bogey. He nearly hit another tee shot onto the street at the difficult fourth hole, on which he took double bogey.
But he steadied himself with three birdies in a row to close out the front nine, and a birdie on his final hole of the day at No. 12 brought him back to 1-under.
He must win to have any chance of capturing the FedEx Cup.
The first round will resume this morning.
Clark’s 62 tied the record set by Bart Bryant in the first round of the 2005 Tour Championship.
PGA European Tour: Lee Westwood found his old putter and shot an 11-under 61 in the first round of Mercedes-Benz Championship in Pulheim, Germany.
The Englishman took a four-stroke lead after finishing one shot short of Fredrik Jacobson’s course record of 60 set in 2003. Westwood went 7-under on the last seven holes, shooting 29 on the back nine. The 61 tied his career best.
Soren Hansen was second with a 65, ahead of Nick Dougherty and Simon Dyson at 66. John Daly, who eagled the par-5, 523-yard 15th hole, shared fourth place with a 67.
