Goosen leads WGC golf at Firestone
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Retief Goosen took the first round lead at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Thursday.
Despite arriving late in Akron and not having the benefit of even one practice round, the South African shot a four-under-par 66 in benign morning conditions at Firestone Country Club.
Goosen leads Vijay Singh, Zach Johnson, Daniel Chopra and Tim Clark by one stroke after a day when 33 players in the 80-man field broke par.
Chez Reavie, who won the Canadian Open last week, Rocco Mediate, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk are in a large group at 2-under 68.
Goosen spent Monday and Tuesday in Florida, working with his coach, before jetting in less than 24 hours before the first round.
“There’s so much crap going on at a course from Monday to Wednesday, I’m just not for it anymore,” he said.
“I just arrive at the last minute, play my (practice) round and get the tournament under way.
“I got in here lunchtime yesterday and then it rained, so I didn’t go out on the course at all. I know the course well, so it’s not that I really needed a practice round.”
Singh, meanwhile, was leading with one hole to play, only to run up a double-bogey at the par-4 18th, where he sprayed his drive into the right rough and later three-putted from 10 feet.
“It was a bad double,” he said. “That’s the only fairway I missed. I tried to hit it to the fat side of the fairway and I came off it a little bit.”