Bubba Watson got booed hard on TPC Scottsdale’s par-3 16th on Thursday in Round 1 of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
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Fowler bounced back from missing the cut at Torrey Pines last week to show the kind of form that saw him win in Abu Dhabi recently.
“I holed some putts, maybe three or four putts outside 20 feet… and I haven’t done that for a while”, said the 28-year-old, whose highlight came at the par-three 16th where he drained a 30-footer in front of a raucous stadium crowd. “I probably didn’t score as low as I thought I played, but I’m very encouraged with the number of quality shots I hit and how my game feels”.
Hahn opened with a chip-in birdie on the par-4 10th and birdied the two back-nine par 5s, making a 30-footer on the 13th and hitting a wedge to 7 feet on the 15th. “You know, again, they didn’t ask me”. “Well, I like to be colorful on the golf course”.
Geoff Ogilvy and Matt Jones are the best-placed Australians at one under while Aaron Baddeley had a shocking round of six-over 77 starting the day three shots off the lead. “I made a couple of bad bogeys, but to shoot 65 was nice”.
The Kiwi golfer is a shot off the lead after a five under second round, tied for second with American Rickie Fowler on nine under par. “The only thing different about the course today, as any other day, is the greens are better”.
“I don’t like it”, Watson said in response. “I just became a little bit tense there and that’s something that I need to work on”. “I think with the way the weather conditions are, it’s made the golf course quite tricky out there”.
On his back nine, Mickelson bogeyed the par-3 fourth after hitting short and right and failing to reach the green with his second, and unraveled with a triple bogey on the par-4 fifth. Jason Dufner shot 71-74 to miss the cut in his first start since winning at La Quinta.
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Only four players – Bo Van Pelt, Patrick Rodgers, Brendon de Jonge and Kyle Reifers – were unable to complete their rounds due to darkness.
