Matteson leads, Tiger lurks at Buick
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2008 Buick Invitational | Round One | 25 Jan 2008
28-year-old Troy Matteson leads after day one of the Buick Invitational, his round of seven under 65 on the demanding South Course an impressive bounce back after missing the cut at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic last week.
Cool breezy conditions prevailed on day although the scoring generally was very good. The cut score at the completion of 36 holes appears likely to be around even par.
Matteson, leads by one over USPGA rookie Brad Adamonis while lurking one shot further back is a group at five under including the five time champion of this event, Tiger Woods, who, like Matteson, had to negotiate the more demanding South Course and served warning that win number six might not be far away. Both the North and South Courses at Torrey Pines are used on the opening two days of the event.
Matteson won the Frys.com event in late 2006 in his rookie season on the PGA Tour while Adamonis, a winner on the Nationwide Tour in 2007, is a rookie in 2008 after gaining his right to play the USPGA Tour at Tour School late last year. Adamonis played the easier North Course as did all but four of the top 20 after day one, making the rounds of both Matteson and Woods just that much more impressive.
Stuart Appleby, sporting a new look haircut, is also in the group at five under and is the leading Australian just ahead of Nathan Green who two years ago, in just his second USPGA Tour event, finished runner up to tiger Woods at this tournament.
New Zealander Tim Wilkinson has made another good start to be at three under 69 while John Senden, Rod Pampling, Nick O’Hern and Robert Allenby are at 2 under 70.