Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Selangor, Malaysia | Sports | Thu, October 25 2012, 7:59 PM
US golfer Troy Matteson fired an eight-under-par 63 to take the lead on Thursday in the first round of the four-day CIMB Classic in Selangor, Malaysia.
Matteson, who teed off at 8:50 a.m. local time (7:50 a.m. Jakarta time), shot four straight birdies in the last four holes at the Mines Resort & Golf Club, leading by one shot ahead of fellow PGA Tour golfers Brian Harman, Jeff Overton and Robert Garrigus, all from the US.
Harman, who shot eight birdies and one bogey, Overton (five birdies, one eagle) and Garrigus (seven birdies, one eagle, two bogeys) shared second place.
“The short par-4, it was playing pretty drivable today. Obviously, it’s hard to hug it against the water there, and I kind of missed it and I left it short of the green,” Matteson told reporters after his game, referring to hole 15.
“I really didn’t have a very good pitch and I pitched it past the hole about 20 feet [about 6.1 meters], which a lot of guys are doing today because it’s just tough to hold it on there.”
“[I] made a good putt, but I got to see Ricky’s putt first, so that helped me get a better read on it,” he said, referring to Ricky Barnes, whom he was paired with.
Matteson said a good read from Barnes’ play at par-3 hole 16 also helped him drain a “nice putt from 12, 13 feet”.
“[At hole] 17, I kind of butchered [hole] 17. I hit a pretty good drive and I hit a long iron and I just hit it fat and it was down in the bottom fairway, and I got it up and down,” Matteson said.
“It’s not the ideal way to play it, but [I] hit a good wedge shot in and made birdie there.”
Being tricked at hole 18, he said his ball barely landed over the bunker and trickled back in the bunker, leaving him on the upslope.
“I knew I’d be doing good if I could leave myself seven or eight feet for par, and it bounced and slam-dunked in the hole. That’s the first time all year the ball has managed to hit the pin and stay in the hole,” said Matteson.
Matteson will be paired with Harman in the second round on Friday, which will tee off at 11 a.m.
One of the Asian Tour order of merit players, Gaganjeet Bhullar of India, and Malaysian qualifier Danny Chia, also made a good start to sit in the top-10, finishing fifth (65) and seventh (66), respectively.
Defending champion Bo Van Pelt of the US finished 30th with a one-under-par 70, while Tiger Woods of the US, who made an Asian comeback after 13 years, sat in seventh place along with Chia and four other golfers.
Chia, who shot five birdies, said he had done his best.
“There's a couple of tough pins and at couple of pins, you can actually go for it, so it's a mixture of everything. So, the setup was pretty good today,” he said.
Scoring two good rounds in last year’s CIMB Classic, Chia said he would “just try to make my worst round not as bad, like if I could make my worst round to 1‑ or 2‑under – that would be fantastic”.
The US$6.1 million event, the third of its kind, features 48 professional golf players, including 30 players from PGA Tour’s 2012 FedEx Cup, top 10 players from the Asian Tour order of merit, two Malaysian qualifiers and six of sponsor exemptions.
The tournament will be upgraded to an official PGA Tour money event and will be part of the FedEx Cup competition series starting next year, with a 78-man field and a total prize of $7 million. (swd)
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