Frys.com Open Round One: Hurry up Jim, there's a storm brewing

Jim Furyk had better get a move on if he still fancies his chances of a jackpot in Las Vegas. Five shots off the pace after round one is not usually disastrous on courses as generous as these two proved on Thursday. But things may tighten up a little and, according to the excited chatter of radio commentators I picked up, the competition might even be shortened to three rounds.

We’ve been here before with dodgy weather forecasts, but thunderstorms do look to be on their way Saturday, with the suggestion golf might be washed out altogether that day. That may be overstating the case, but it’s still something our eager golfers need to factor into their calculations.

As it is, the forecast for Friday suggests the wind will become a factor after taking a vacation on day one. A measure of just how all-round benign conditions were for the first round is that scoring averages were the same morning and afternoon. Suggestions (mostly by the caddies) that the par 72 Summerlin was playing harder to get than the par 71 Canyons course also seem overdone - both turned in average rounds of 2.3 under par.

Furyk has a host of hungry young and not-so-young men to fight through if he is to get to the top Thursday, not least of them first round co-leader Bob Tway, a winner here looooooooooooooong ago in the mists of time (well, 1990 anyway), who has suddenly discovered a hot putter. But with more low scoring likely Friday there’s little point dissecting the huddled masses at the top of the leaderboard too much.

I’ve just got to hope Furyk gets his putter going - an average of more than 1.86 for putts per GIR Thursday is diabolical, especially on these straightforward greens.

Just a couple of other nuggets:

1. David Howell continues to perplex me. One minute he’s groaning his way to a missed cut in the Dunhill competition and talking of fighting through the pain barrier of his shoulder injury to get points for the European order of merit. The next he’s firing a two under in smart order across the pond in Las Vegas.

2. I see Brett Quigley didn’t play after all. Thanks for clearing that up, guys and gals at PGA Tour. I guess you still hanker after the days of amateurism in sport eh?