HONOLULU, Hawaii: Aussie Robert Allenby shrugged off an ailing ankle Thursday to join a six-way tie for the first-round lead at the Sony Open, joining a leading group that was nothing if not diverse.Allenby was joined on five-under 65 by defending champion Zach Johnson, tour veteran Davis Love and PGA newcomer Troy Merritt, along with Ryan Palmer and John Merrick.
Love is playing his first tournament in two months, while Merritt was teeing it up on the PGA Tour for the first time in his career. Allenby almost didn’t play at all, but after the long flight to Hawaii decided to give despite twisting his ankle on Monday.
Allenby arrived at Waialae after victories in the Nedbank Challenge and Australian PGA. But he took a bad step while out walking with his wife.
He played with the ankle taped and despite having trouble hitting a fade still managed seven birdies – including three in a row from the 14th – to balance two bogeys.
“My putting was the best part of the day,” Allenby said. “I did hit some good shots, but my putting was good. It’s the same as I left off last year.”
Despite windy conditions, 10 more players were just a stroke back on 66: Argentina’s Masters champion Angel Cabrera, Sweden’s Carl Pettersson, Jeff Quinney, Pat Perez, Shane Bertsch, Tom Lehman, Steve Stricker, Brian Stuard, Roger Tambellini and Martin Flores.
Three more players – Ricky Barnes, Michael Allen and Troy Matteson – carded 67s.
Love was among the first in the clubhouse on 65, completing his five-under round without a bogey.
“I was optimistic,” Love said of his goals after his long layoff. “But I was anxious about competing. Once I got it going, once I got under par … I’ve been out here a long time. You don’t forget.”
Merritt didn’t have that wealth of experience to draw on.
The qualifying school medallist said he told his fiancee he’d be thrilled with a three-under effort, but birdied his final hole to join the leaders. He finished with six birdies and just one bogey.
“Things went way better than I thought,” Merritt said. Merritt is so little known that he had played three holes before someone pointed out that his name was wrong on the scoring sign being carried with his group. It read ‘Merrick’.
“We have lockers right next to each other,” said the real Merrick, who ended up with the same score. “Probably will all year.”
Johnson rebounded from an early bogey with six birdies.
“I really played pretty solid all day,” he said. “I didn’t get off to the best of starts, but I was hitting it solid and remained patient. So I kept the golf course in front of me, hit a lot of fairways and hit a lot of greens.”
The first round of the US$5.5 million tournament, the first full-field event of the season after last week’s SBS Championship for winners only, wasn’t quite complete.
Tom Gillis was facing a 27-foot eagle putt on his final hole when he decided it was too dark to continue, electing to return yesterday morning to putt. — AFP