BMW Championship round one: Look out for the windy city

Battle fatigue looks to be setting in among our band of merrie golfing men. How else to explain Geoff Ogilvy propping up the leaderboard at 7 over after three top ten weeks? The stats suggested he might suffer, especially where the rough is punishing players like it is at Cog Hill, but 34 putts to get home?

Someone who has got on top of his putter is Tiger Woods, who only needed 25 to get round Thursday. This week its his irons that again need a little attention. And he too needs to steer clear of the rough, the effect of which is clear from the fact that only one of the top five ranks higher than sixth for fairways hit (the odd man out being 15th). It was a combination of that, accurate approach work and hot putting that won the first round. Four of the top five rank no higher than 8th for putting (leader Jonathan Byrd being top) and again only one of the top five is higher than 4th for greens in regulation (Byrd again at 17th). There’s always one isn’t there!

The market doesn’t seem too fazed by the double bogey that kept Tiger three shots back. His price has narrowed to a little over 2.1, an interesting contrast to the 190 on offer about Ryuji Imada on the same score.

The most immaculate round came from Stewart Cink, who heads the field for hitting greens and is top ten for everything else. He needs a good result to go to the Tour Championship as does Troy Matteson alongside him.

I don’t suppose Justin Rose can match Thursday’s good round spoiled by a couple of late bogeys - how close was he to being under by well into double figures!

It’s a long way from over yet, though, whatever the market thinks. Mother nature still has to have her final say. Looks like it will be raining on the BMW parade Friday and the windy city will be living up to its name by blowing at around 20mph. There’ll be a few more battle-weary veterans by the end of this championship.