Valero Texas Open round one: Chance buy ends Parnevik's putting woes

Where’s all those solid Australian golfers when you need them? It’s very odd to see a PGA Tour leaderboard that’s not peppered with dark blue flags at the top. Instead its a flag of a decidedly lighter blue taking up the cudgels against the Americans, with no less than five Swedes in the top 20. That’s some achievement for a small and very cold country! The only other non-American up there is Shigeki Maruyama, one of the many who’s just remembered he needs a bob or two to stay in the PGA game.

But he’s been outdone by the man in the pork-pie hat who needs almost $200,000 to scramble inside the PGA Tour safety zone. Jesper Parnevik credits a brand new putter he picked up by chance on Wednesday for his transformation. “Never seen the putter before. I have no idea where it’s coming from… As soon as I set it, placed it on the ground, I said: ‘This is it, this feels great.’ “

It certainly played great as he blazed his way to a 61. At the Viking Classic last week the best he could do with the putter was 1.77 putts per green in regulation in round four. Thursday that figure was 1.47.

But we all know what happens after a great round and Parnevik knows that with scores going so low and three former champions within five shots he’s going to have to keep on being aggressive, which leaves him prone to errors.

His chasers will also have to raise their game to catch him. Only Neal Lancaster so far comes anywhere close to Parnevik’s short game. Justin Leonard is missing a few too many greens while last week’s winner Chad Campbell tops the field for finding greens but is struggling with his putter.

There’s a another Swede lurking though who could confound Jesper’s weekend. Forget Mathias Gronberg, Daniel Chopra or Richard S Johnson. If Fredrik Jacobson warms to his task he could be a big threat. He’s been having a somewhat up and down season but his putting eye looks to be in; he just needs to be a bit more accurate with his approach work.

PS: A shame former champion and 72-hole course record holder Tommy Armour III couldn’t make it. He seems to have disappeared somewhere between the clubhouse and the first tee - he was still in the published field until well into Thursday afternoon when it emerged he had been replaced by Gabriel Hjertstedt. Nice of them to let us know. I’ve no idea why Tommy dropped out, but it’s a pity all the same - could have been a swell party with all those Valero vets at the top.