Sept21 ustourcampbo
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Jeff Gove and Chad Campbell each shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday to tie for the first-round lead at the Turning Stone Resort Championship.
Gove and Campbell, who finished one stroke off the Atunyote Golf Club course record, were one shot ahead of Steve Flesch, John Senden, Matthew Goggin and Brendon de Jonge. Both Goggin and de Jonge bogeyed their final holes to drop from the lead.
John Rollins, who won the final B.C. Open here just over a year ago with a closing 64, shot 67 and was tied for seventh with John Mallinger, Robert Allenby, Matt Hendrix, and Tag Ridings.
Third-year pro David Branshaw, a native of nearby Oswego, was at 4-under 68, tied with Justin Leonard, Robert Gamez, Steven Lowery, Mark Hensby, Joey Sindelar, and five others.
John Daly, coughing and apparently ailing, withdrew after seven holes, complaining he was ill with the flu. Daly had opened with three straight pars, then followed with bogeys on three of the next four holes. At the seventh he sat on his bag for several minutes with his head down waiting to play, then three-putted and walked off the course.
With conditions ideal on a warm, sunny day with a light breeze, Gove, ranked 152nd on the money list, used his stout iron play to quickly take advantage of the wide and soft fairways on the 7,482-yard course. Second to Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour in greens in regulation (70.13 percent), Gove hit 16 of 18 on the day and birdied four of his first five holes, with three of the putts 5 feet or closer.
After faltering with bogey at the par-4 ninth hole, Gove hit a putt that traveled 40 feet, going up and over an undulation in the green before dropping in the hole for birdie at the par-3 11th hole. He followed that by hitting a sand wedge to 5 feet at No. 12 for his final birdie and finished his best round of the year by holing a sand wedge from 100 yards for eagle at the 617-yard, par-5 No. 18
“I think it’s the first shot I’ve made from the fairway all year,” said Gove, whose best result this season was a tie for sixth at the John Deere Classic, equaling his career high. “I’m pumped. I’m sad to see the day end.”