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Newcomer Watney Leads At PGA Opener In Hawaii

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The Associated Press

Published: January 4, 2008

KAPALUA, Hawaii - Opening day on the PGA Tour was filled with oddities, starting with Nick Watney leading the Mercedes-Benz Championship on Thursday with a 5-under 68 that featured no bogeys and a mixture of sunshine and rain.

Newcomers are supposed to be at a disadvantage on the Plantation Course at Kapalua with its mammoth greens and severe grain, but Watney kept it simple and poured in enough putts to take a one-shot lead over Daniel Chopra and get his 2008 season off to a good start.

"I think maybe they say that because the greens are very grainy," Watney said. "I think for me, personally, with the green, if I don't know what a putt is going to do, then I'll just play grain. So it worked out today."

It didn't work out for most of the winners-only field.
Brandt Snedeker was in the lead most of the round until he hit what he thought was the perfect tee shot on No. 17. Imagine his surprise to see his ball in the waist-high native grasses, some 100 yards behind Steve Stricker. Turns out his driver had a hairline crack in the top of the face, which played a big part in his double bogey-bogey finish that sent him to a 71.
Scott Verplank was at even-par 73, rattled by a ruling he continued to dispute after his round that cost him a double bogey on the 13th and made him think more about his pre-shot routine than how to play the shot.

With his ball positioned on the slope of the fairway, the wind gusting some 30 mph in his face, his ball moved about a quarter-inch. Verplank did not think he had addressed the ball, but after a discussion with rules official Mike Shea, he was told he caused the ball to move. Verplank played a second ball in protest, but lost the argument after his round.

Tour officials were trying to find video evidence after the round.

"I don't agree with it," Verplank said. "I know right from wrong. I know what happened. If I felt I did anything to make that ball move, give me a penalty. At the time, I didn't think I did anything to make it move."

Stricker rallied from a rough start, playing the final 10 holes in 3 under for a 73.

Three of the highest-paid people on the PGA Tour were absent Thursday on opening day at the Mercedes-Benz Championship - Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and commissioner Tim Finchem.

That didn't sit well with some players. More troubling to Joe Ogilvie, a member of the PGA Tour policy board, was not seeing any member of the tour's executive staff at Kapalua for the first tournament.

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