PINE MOUNTAIN, Ga. -- Lift, clean and place rules led to the lowest first-round scoring average in 12 years at the Buick Challenge Thursday.
Heavy showers Wednesday night, leading to light rain Thursday morning, caused officials to put the rules in effect, which allow players to clean mud off a ball that is in the fairway and set it back down in a good lie. The result was 118 players in the 132-man field turning in cards of par or better.
"With the ball being in our hand, the scoring is out there," said leader Tim Herron, who shot a 9-under 63 in the morning.
The average of 69.508 was almost a stroke lower than last year's average of 70.568, which at that time set a record. Fifteen eagles carded throughout the day also set a record, besting by one the record of 14 set in 1992.
"I felt like I was right at home playing a qualifier back at the University of Oregon," Ben Crane said after shooting a 65 to tie for second. "You know we were always playing lift, clean and place. It was a little cold but when you are playing with lift, clean and place you always have a nice lie and the greens are obviously extremely receptive right now so wherever you hit it is pretty much where it is going to stay so you can be aggressive with it."
The only thing that players may have lacked due to the wet conditions was distance off the tee.
"The course certainly played a lot longer today because we didn't get any roll in the fairways but the greens were very receptive and because we played lift, clean and place with all the water we saw a lot of low scores today," said Phil Mickelson, who shot a 7-under 65. "The fairways played much wider because we didn't have the roll to have it run through into the rough so a lot of guys hit fairways and were able to attack some pins, so we saw a lot of low scores."
In addition to the low scores, 19 players went around the par-72 track without a single bogey.
IN POSITION: Some players are working for more than just a paycheck this week. Coming down to the end of the season, getting into the top 30 to play in next week's Tour Championship or into the top 125 to keep next year's card is high on the minds of many in the field.
Three players close to the top 125 felt the heat today, all shooting a 1-under 71 that was a shot-and-a-half off the day's average. Per-Ulrik Johansson (No. 120), Craig Barlow (No. 123) and Jay Don Blake (No. 128) all shot the mediocre scores, which put them in a tie for 91st and in danger of missing the cut.
Another player at risk, Carlos Franco (No. 119), shot a first-round 66 and is tied for eighth.
CUT MAN: Australian Peter Lonard, a rookie on the PGA Tour, shot a 4-under 68 Thursday and looks able to make the cut again this week. Lonard has not missed a single cut this season, playing the weekend in 22 of 22 events.
The consistency has helped Lonard at the bank. He's earned $1,407,367 so far this season, good for 39th position on the money list.
Lonard's best finish in 2002 is a tie for third at the Genuity Championship, while his worst is a tie for 54th at the WGC-American Express Championship a month ago in Ireland. While nothing in his stats for the year is outstanding, his all-around ranking is 15th on Tour, showing his ability to do everything adequately. A scoring average of 69.89 doesn't hurt either -- that's ninth best on Tour.
