Travelers Championship round one: DiMarco shoulders a tough burden

TPC River Highlands appears to have turned itself into a kind of rehab centre. There’s a fair number of crocks, both of the physical and mental variety, who seem to have rejuvenated their game at the Travelers. Brad Faxon and Shigeki Maruyama come in trailing a long line of missed cuts and withdrawals. Kenny Perry is playing like a man posessed and even Carl Pettersson, though not having such a terrible season, has been a shadow of the player we saw last year.

Most spectacular though was Thursday’s round of Chris DiMarco, winless since 2002 and with pretty much zero to show for his efforts since running Tiger Woods close at Hoylake last year. Given what ails him, you wonder how succesful he will be at staying low through the weekend. The shoulder twinges for which he has already had two cortisone injections apparently signal three problems: arthritis, tendonitis and a bone growth that will eventually need surgery.

Like Pettersson and leader Hunter Mahan, though, it was the putter that really made DiMarco’s day Thursday. Mahon fair scorched the greens - just 22 putts for the round and a putts per GIR of 1.3. Clearly his 13th place at Oakmont was no abberation.

I was sure Perry would join him, opening with five birdies in six holes, but he lost his way down the back nine, complaining later that slow play affected his concentration.

And sure enough, there’s good old Woody Austin again, four shots off the pace alongside Ryan Moore. Unfortunately for Moore, he is alone among the leaders in first having to polish off his storm-delayed opening round. But it is just the final hole.

A four-shot gap is nothing in this competition. Two years ago Faxon came from 12 behind after round two to win a playoff, and he was still seven shots adrift after round three.

So there’s hope for Justin Rose yet!