Tour Championship Round One: Disaster for Love as the form book is blown away

“Nothing’s going to be pretty out there today,” said Stewart Cink. How right he was. “Pretty” never even got out of bed as the wind played havoc with Thursday’s play. I bet Davis Love III wished he’d never got out of bed either after shooting 12 over, apparently his highest score to par in 21 years of playing. Yup, even worse than the 83 that sent him crashing out of the Players Championship in March. Exactly what went wrong, apart from bunkers, plugged lies and general gusty mayhem, is not clear. All I could discern was a cryptic suggestion by AP’s Doug Ferguson of a fragile back.

It was a day of some strange contrasts. For instance, the round finished incredibly early because players were coming home in less than four hours. Yet Ernie Els and K J Choi found themselves on the clock at one point, apparently because they were spending so much time brushing leaves out of the paths of their balls.

I thought the gods were really against me when Retief Goosen and Vijay Singh were joint leaders. Then Vijay’s putting woes cut in - he might have been well clear of the field by now but for his awful finishing.

That still leaves Goosen on top, suddenly finding form that has eluded him most of the season. But then I twigged - the overnight suggestion the course was soft and slow was, to put it mildly, misleading. Wednesday’s “slow” greens became Thursday’s “firm and fast", with players suggesting conditions were the toughest they’d played since the US Open. Ping! Just the conditions Goosen thrives on. Had I known 24 hours earlier he would not have been a lay.

No matter. Joe Durant put in a commendable round to match him and it’s well open at the top, with Jim Furyk handily placed and Adam Scott well in touch. Stuart Appleby to finish the season as he started? Els to earn a ticket to Kapalua? The weather is supposed to moderate Friday although it will still be quite cool, so it is more than conceivable at least one player will fire a really low round.

PS: The wind was not the only thing ruffling feathers around the East Lake course Thursday. Tom Pernice Jr, eschewing the rather diplomatic tones of Commissioner Tom Finchem the night before, made no bones about his anger at Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for giving the tournament a miss. Inexcusable, he said. A slap in the face for the PGA Tour and a slap in the face for Coca Cola. Cue cryptic comments from radio commentators about how he was probably speaking for a lot of the players. But why are they complaining? Doesn’t it leave more money for them to win?