Darren Clarke leads the Irish charge this week as the PGA Champions’ Tour heads to the pacific northwest for the Boeing Classic. A stacked field touch down in Seattle, Washington as The Club in Snoqualmie Ridge plays host to the Boeing for the 19th year.
Day one produced a tightly packed leaderboard with a four-way tie for top spot overnight. Woody Austin, Steven Alker, Robert Karlsson and Gene Sauers all claiming bragging rights in the clubhouse on -6 after day one.
Clarke comes into the week off the back of a T13 at the Senior Open at Carnoustie, a welcome result for the Dungannon man having started the Champions’ Tour season brightly with four finishes of T10 of better in the first six events before falling off in more recent weeks. Clarke should look to build on his week in Scotland and get his season back on track with eight events left in the regular season. He currently sits on 28th in the Charles Schwab Cup standings heading into this week’s action. Much of the drama came on the opening nine of day one for Clarke. An opening birdie got him off brightly only to be handed back on the following hole, the par-4 second. Two more dropped shots followed on the fourth and the ninth, seeing him turn on two over. A solid back nine showing from Clarke with eight pars on the bounce before snatching one back on the final hole of the day, the par-5 18th. His one-over 73 sees Clarke in decent shape in T54 heading into round two.
The leading group of four have plenty of company at the top with a chasing pack of three sitting just one stroke back. Kirk Trippet, Michael Allen and David Brandson lurk on five-under-par heading into Saturday with Richard Green and Tom Pernice Jr. just one stroke further back. Charles Schwab Cup leader Ernie Els birdied three of his last five holes en route to 3-under 69 and sits T10. Defending champion and Charles Schwab No. 2 Stephen Ames opened with 1-under 71 and sits T26.
“I just said to Cookie, it’s kind of a second-shot golf course,” said co-leader Alker after his opening 66. “There’s room off the tee and you get lots of options, get into those little portions of the green. And just hitting yardages is key around here. Then, as I said, I like poa greens. They’re always fantastic here, they’re always rolling so good. It’s just a matter of getting your speed and you hit ’em online and you hole ’em.”
“Just made a few putts, that’s all,” reflected his co-leader Woody Austin. “Played really solid. Three-putted the first hole right out of the gate, but then just played — I think I might have hit two bad shots all day. Made bogey on 2. I hit it just a hair fat, hit in lip of the bunker, rolled back in the bunker and didn’t get it up and down. But I think that was pretty much the only mishit or really bad shot I hit all day. Just played really solid. Then hit two of the par 5s, had two eagle putts inside 15 feet, two-putted both of those on 18 and 1. Just played really solid. Made a couple 12-footers, which those are the hard ones for me.”
Austin will begin his second round on Saturday in the final grouping from the first tee at 8.15PM Irish time with Alker and Karlsson. Clarke meanwhile will kick off his second day with Miguel Angel Jiminez and John Senden. They head out from the 10th tee at 6.58PM with room to improve on Saturday.
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