By SCOTT HAMILTON
shamilton@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5533
It took 293 starts before Brian Gay claimed his first PGA Tour victory. His second may come much quicker.
Those same winds torpedoed some rounds. Only 18 birdies and one eagle were posted on the final two holes compared to 63 scores of bogey or worse. That includes a bogey by Janzen on No. 18 that followed an improbable ace a hole earlier.
"I battled all day," said Janzen, the two-time U.S. Open champ who opened up with a 65. "It was a challenge out there to try to get under par. It was tough to keep the ball on the green, much less near the hole."
Gay had little problem finding the hole for much of the day.
After opening with a par, Gay reeled off five straight birdies en route to a front-nine 30. That included draining a fringe putt from outside 25 feet on the fifth hole, one of only 26 putts in his round. He stumbled after making the turn, however, for his only bogey of the day after his 6-iron approach from 186 yards drifted into a greenside bunker.
"It felt like a grind all day, even though I made five (birdies) in a row on the front," Gay said. "... I can't say it enough -- it was tough to pick clubs and figure out where to aim and where to pick targets based on the wind. You had to back off a lot with the wind changing."
Hamilton, who started off on the 10th tee, didn't bolt out of the gate like Gay, but he also put together a bogey-free round and is on pace for another strong week. After finishing in a tie for 15th last week at the Masters, Hamilton moved around the course in a workmanlike fashion, playing his first 10 holes at 4 under before a string of pars and a round-closing birdie. He missed only three fairways while sticking his approach shots an average of 30 feet from the hole -- tops among the field.
"It's always good to make five birdies in your round," said Hamilton, who is playing his final season of the five-year exemption he received for his British Open win. "But it's even nicer not to have any bogeys.
Thirty-six holes of golf remain with 10 players within five shots of Gay. But things could be shaping up for the 37-year-old Gay to claim his second PGA Tour victory.
A short hitter with strong skills in the scoring zone, Gay had to bide his time before securing his first PGA Tour victory. A two-time Southeastern Conference championship winner while at the University of Florida, Gay won nine times on various mini-tours before joining the PGA Tour full time in 1999. But he went winless through his first nine years on the PGA Tour, a string of 292 starts that was 13th-longest among active players going back to his start at the 1996 U.S. Open.
Gay had only a pair of runner-up finishes during that span before winning at the 2008 Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun, an event played opposite of the WGC Match Play Championship. He went on to secure five more top-10 finishes and finish 46th in the FedEx Cup points standings.
Gay opened this season with four consecutive top-20 finishes, including a tie for fifth at the Sony Open in January and a tie for sixth two weeks later at the FBR Open. He's made five straight cuts since the start of March, most recently at the Shell Houston Open two weeks ago.
"That was a big springboard for me, winning last year and having my best year after that," Gay said. "I got off to a good start this year doing the same things."
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