Low scores at the Zurich Classic are nothing new. The birdie-friendly setup of TPC Louisiana typically leads to a number of rounds in the mid-60s. Calm weather conditions made scoring conditions even more optimal on Thursday and Ben Martin took advantage, carding a 10-under 62 to take the first round lead.
Zurich Classic 2014: Ben Martin sets a course record, leads at 10-under
Birdies were plentiful once again at the Zurich Classic, led by Ben Martin, who holds the first-round lead after a record-setting day.
Chris Graythen
Martin’s round of 10-under was good enough to set a new course record. He bettered the previous course record of 64, which was tied earlier in the round by Andrew Svoboda. Martin got the round off to a great start, opening with back-to-back birdies. Following a par at No. 3, he carded another pair of birdies, a trend for his round. He birdied eight of his first 11 holes, with three pars sandwiched between four back-to-back sets of birdies. Martin carded a 30 on the front nine and while he cooled off some on the back, he closed the round strong with a birdie on No. 17 to move to 10-under. In addition to making a whopping 10 birdies, he avoided any mistakes and did not drop a shot.
Rickie Fowler
It was an impressive round for the 26-year-old Martin, who’s struggled to gain solid footing on the PGA Tour since turning pro in 2010. Martin made 17 cuts in 42 events on the PGA Tour, bouncing between the PGA Tour and the Web.com Tour. He’s playing the PGA Tour full time this year and has had some success with a pair of top 10 finishes.
Despite bettering the course record by two strokes, Martin will begin the second round with just a two-stroke lead. Svoboda shot an 8-under 64 joining seven others for the then course record. Peter Hanson and Seung-Yul Noh are just three strokes off the lead after shooting rounds of 65. A total of 10 players shot 67 or better and 82 players carded a score in the red.
Rickie Fowler was not one of those players, as he had some issues in the opening round. He finished with four bogeys and a double, needing a birdie on No. 18 to finish at 3-over, 13 shots off the lead. He didn’t get off to a very good start, with a bogey-six at the par-5 second hole. He followed that up with a bogey at No. 4. Fowler wasn’t the only notable name having some issues. Defending champion Billy Horschel has a lot of ground to make up if he’s going to repeat as champion. He opened the tournament with a round of 74, putting him in a tie for 114th place.
Here is a full look at the leaderboard through 18 holes:
Place | Player | Score | 1st Round |
1 | Ben Martin | -10 | 62 |
2 | Andrew Svoboda | -8 | 64 |
T3 | Peter Hanson | -7 | 65 |
T3 | Seung-yul Noh | -7 | 65 |
T5 | Erik Compton | -6 | 66 |
T5 | Chad Collins | -6 | 66 |
T5 | Michael Thompson | -6 | 66 |
T8 | Jeff Overton | -5 | 67 |
T8 | Stuart Appleby | -5 | 67 |
T8 | Robert Streb | -5 | 67 |
T11 | Doug LaBelle II | -4 | 68 |
T11 | David Lingmerth | -4 | 68 |
T11 | David Duval | -4 | 68 |
T11 | Charles Howell III | -4 | 68 |
T11 | J.J. Henry | -4 | 68 |
T11 | D.H. Lee | -4 | 68 |
T11 | Sang-Moon Bae | -4 | 68 |
T11 | Charley Hoffman | -4 | 68 |
T11 | Will Wilcox | -4 | 68 |
T20 | Graham Delaet | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Nick Watney | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Carl Pettersson | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Rory Sabbatini | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Keegan Bradley | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Cameron Beckman | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Chris DiMarco | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Joe Durant | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Roberto Castro | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Chris Stroud | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Kevin Kisner | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Brice Garnett | -3 | 69 |
T20 | John Merrick | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Spencer Levin | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Kevin Foley | -3 | 69 |
T20 | Shawn Stefani | -3 | 69 |
T36 | Luke Guthrie | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Padraig Harrington | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Chad Campbell | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Martin Laird | -2 | 70 |
T36 | John Senden | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Ben Curtis | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Charlie Wi | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Ricky Barnes | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Tim Wilkinson | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Kevin Tway | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Alex Prugh | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Scott McCarron | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Morgan Hoffmann | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Andres Romero | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Vijay Singh | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Scott Langley | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Bronson La'Cassie | -2 | 70 |
T36 | Lee Williams | -2 | 70 |
T54 | Paul Casey | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Dicky Pride | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Briny Baird | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Kyle Stanley | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Tommy Gainey | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Sean O'Hair | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Will MacKenzie | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Greg Chalmers | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Richard Lee | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Max Homa | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Troy Merritt | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Billy Hurley III | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Tag Ridings | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Jerry Kelly | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Danny Lee | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Mark Calcavecchia | -1 | 71 |
T54 | David Hearn | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Justin Rose | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Boo Weekley | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Lucas Glover | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Robert Allenby | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Derek Ernst | -1 | 71 |
T54 | J.B. Holmes | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Ryan Palmer | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Bud Cauley | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Andrew Loupe | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Brooks Koepka | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Edward Loar | -1 | 71 |
T54 | Ken Looper | -1 | 71 |
T83 | Nicholas Thompson | E | 72 |
T83 | Martin Flores | E | 72 |
T83 | Tim Petrovic | E | 72 |
T83 | Retief Goosen | E | 72 |
T83 | Ted Potter, Jr. | E | 72 |
T83 | Geoff Ogilvy | E | 72 |
T83 | Rich Beem | E | 72 |
T83 | Troy Matteson | E | 72 |
T83 | John Mallinger | E | 72 |
T83 | Mark Anderson | E | 72 |
T83 | Fabian Gomez | E | 72 |
T83 | Camilo Villegas | E | 72 |
T83 | Freddie Jacobson | E | 72 |
T83 | Daniel Summerhays | E | 72 |
T83 | Ernie Els | E | 72 |
T83 | Y.E. Yang | E | 72 |
T83 | Brian Davis | E | 72 |
T83 | Kevin Chappell | E | 72 |
T83 | Alex Aragon | E | 72 |
T102 | Ken Duke | 1 | 73 |
T102 | Robert Garrigus | 1 | 73 |
T102 | Benjamin Alvarado | 1 | 73 |
T102 | Josh Teater | 1 | 73 |
T102 | D.A. Points | 1 | 73 |
T102 | David Toms | 1 | 73 |
T102 | Brendan Steele | 1 | 73 |
T102 | Scott Verplank | 1 | 73 |
T102 | Russell Knox | 1 | 73 |
T102 | Cameron Tringale | 1 | 73 |
T102 | Tyrone van Aswegen | 1 | 73 |
T102 | Hudson Swafford | 1 | 73 |
T114 | William McGirt | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Kevin Stadler | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Harrison Frazar | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Mike Weir | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Peter Malnati | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Brady Watt | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Scott Gardiner | 2 | 74 |
T114 | John Rollins | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Stephen Ames | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Trevor Immelman | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Billy Horschel | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Scott Stallings | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Patrick Reed | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Jonathan Byrd | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Heath Slocum | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Bo Van Pelt | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Wes Roach | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Brad Fritsch | 2 | 74 |
T114 | Jim Herman | 2 | 74 |
T133 | Thorbjorn Olesen | 3 | 75 |
T133 | Jim Renner | 3 | 75 |
T133 | George McNeill | 3 | 75 |
T133 | Woody Austin | 3 | 75 |
T133 | Steve Marino | 3 | 75 |
T133 | Jamie Lovemark | 3 | 75 |
T133 | Miguel Angel Carballo | 3 | 75 |
T133 | Rickie Fowler | 3 | 75 |
T133 | Dustin Morris | 3 | 75 |
T133 | David Bradshaw | 3 | 75 |
T143 | Matt Every | 4 | 76 |
T143 | Mark Wilson | 4 | 76 |
T143 | Robert Gates | 4 | 76 |
T143 | Greg Owen | 4 | 76 |
T143 | Matt Bettencourt | 4 | 76 |
T143 | Daniel Chopra | 4 | 76 |
T143 | John Peterson | 4 | 76 |
T143 | Ben Crane | 4 | 76 |
T143 | James Driscoll | 4 | 76 |
152 | Thomas Aiken | 5 | 77 |
153 | Garrett Osborn | 6 | 78 |
T154 | Tim Herron | 7 | 79 |
T154 | James Hahn | 7 | 79 |
T154 | Neal Ajubita | 7 | 79 |
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