First round notebook – Bob Hope Chrysler Classic
* Mike Weir eagled the par-5 18th hole on the Palmer Course to close with a first-round 10-under 62. Weir’s career-best round was a first-round 61 at the 2008 Deutsche Bank Championship.* Mike Weir’s previous best round at the Bob Hope Classic was a 64 during the second round on the Palmer Course in 2003, which is the year he won the tournament.
* Pat Perez shot an 11-under par 61 on the Palmer Course to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Bob Hope Classic. Perez’s round included 10 birdies, an eagle and a bogey.
* Pat Perez has a history of going low at the Bob Hope Classic, shooting a 12-under 60 during the first round in 2006 on the Palmer Course and an 11-under 61 in the second round at the 2003 on Bermuda Dunes Country Club. Although Perez has a history of turning in low rounds at this event he has not finished in the top-5 in five previous appearances at this event.
* Teeing off his round at No. 10 on the Palmer Course, Pat Perez fired an eight-under 28 over his first nine holes. Robert Gamez set the tournament record for lowest nine holes in 2004 with a 27 at Indian Wells CC. The PGA TOUR record for low 9 holes is a 26 set by Corey Pavin in 2006.
* Pat Perez has held the first-round lead once in his seven-year PGA TOUR career (first-round of the 2006 Bob Hope Classic, 60). Perez is looking for his first win on TOUR (198 career starts). His best finishes came in 2002 with a second-place finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach and a T2 at the Buick Classic.
* Bubba Watson’s 10-under 62 on the Palmer Course is a personal-best round. His previous best round on TOUR was a 64 at the 2007 Shell Houston Open, where he turned in his career-best finish (T2). Watson also recorded a T2 at the 2008 Buick Open. This is Watson’s third appearance at the Bob Hope Classic (MC-2007, T26-2008).
* Briny Baird shot a nine-under 63 on the Palmer Course. Baird has registered a career-best 62 four times on TOUR with the most recent coming at the 2008 Wyndham Championship. Baird has not finished in the top-three at an event since T2 at the 2004 FUNAI Classic at Disney
* Vaughn Taylor fired a nine-under 63 at Bermuda Dunes CC to tie his career-best round. Taylor has recorded a 63 three other times on TOUR most recently at the 2006 Buick Open.
* Ben Crane turned in a nine-under 63 on the Nicklaus Course. Crane’s best round was a 62 at the 2005 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee.
* Richard S. Johnson matched his career-best round with a 63 on the Nicklaus Course. Johnson’s other 63 came during the first round last year at the U.S. Bank Championship, which he went on to win for his first TOUR victory.
* Rick Price turned in the best round of the day for a TOUR rookie with an eight-under 64 on the Nicklaus Course (T10). Price, a 41-year-old rookie, missed the cut last week at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He had two previous starts on TOUR, both times missing the cut (1990 Hardee’s Golf Classic and 1991 U.S. Open).
* In a day of low scoring, David Duval, who shot one of the TOUR’s three rounds of 59 at the 1999 Bob Hope Classic, finished at four-under 68 after the first round. Al Geiberger (1977) and Chip Beck (1991) are the only other players in TOUR history to shoot a 59.
* 2008 PGA TOUR Q School graduates David Berganio, Jr. and Jason Dufner both shot rounds of nine-under 63 (T4).
* Only six players finished the first-round over par at the Bob Hope Classic, with four of the golfers at one-over.
* Scoring Averages Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd3 Rd 4 Rd 5
Palmer Course : 67.469
SilverRock: 68.594
Bermuda Dunes: 68.344
Nicklaus Course: 66.719
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