Tampa Bay Championship 2013 leaderboard: Harris English leads early in 1st Round

For a regular PGA Tour event, it will be hard to top the world class leaderboard and Sunday victory by Tiger Woods last week at Doral. But Tim Finchem’s group of pros have swung across the state of Florida this week for the Tampa Bay Championship, where the morning wave has completed the first round at Copperhead.

Harris English, the highly touted Georgia product currently holds the lead at 4-under after his first nine holes. English is an extremely talented player who should have multiple PGA Tour victories in his future. He’s made several appearances on the first page of leaderboards, but it was his teammate, Russell Henley, who broke through first with a victory in the second week of the 2013 season. This week presents another ideal opportunity for English to more formally announce his arrival on Tour and earn a berth at next month’s Masters in his home state.

A host a players are in the red and chasing English, including defending champion Luke Donald who opened with a 1-under round of 70. It was at this event last year that Donald reclaimed his momentary status as the top ranked player in the world, before relinquishing it to Rory McIlroy later in the summer. Donald has had an up-and-down month on Tour, struggling with his short game a bit last week at Doral. He’s known as the top short game player in the world, and he’ll certainly be one of the favorites this week.

Joining Donald at 1-under are Patrick Cantlay and Nick Watney, two Americans who should also be in contention in Tampa. Here’s a current snapshot of the leaderboard, along with some notables:

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