Matthew Goggin among five sharing lead after first round of Bob Hope Chrysler Classic

From WorldGolf.com News Services

While some professional golfers might not enjoy the distraction of playing with amateurs in a pro-am format like the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, several players tied atop the leaderboard after the first round said relaxing and trying to enjoy the event is critical to their success.

"Just be relaxed and just chill out," Matthew Goggin told reporters Wednesday when asked how he handles the pro-am. "You just, you can't get upset about the delays or bad amateur partners or good amateur partners or whatever's going to happen.

"It's five rounds — it's like a low pressure version of Q-School. It's a grind, it's hard to concentrate for six hours, but at least the whole next year doesn't hinge on it."

Goggin was one of five players to shoot 7-under-par 65 in Palm Desert, Calif., to start out the only five-round tournament on the PGA Tour. He was joined by Tim Petrovic, Shigeki Maruyama, Joe Durant and Omar Uresti, who carded his round at PGA West. The other four leaders played the Classic Club.

The first four days of the tournament are a pro-am played at four courses, with Silver Rock Golf Club and La Quinta also serving as tournament sites. Sunday's final round will be at the Classic Club and will feature the top 70 professional players and ties.

Uresti said chatting with the amateurs in his group might have actually helped his performance.

"Usually if I can keep myself talking, I'll stay a little looser and not think about the game so much," Uresti said in his post-round press conference. "Sometimes I have a tendency to tighten up, get a little tense out there and stuff like that, so it was kind of nice to be able to talk to my amateurs and stay loose out there."

Petrovic joked that playing with amateurs is good for his ego.

"I can hit it farther than all the guys in my group, so that's good," he told reporters, drawing laughter in the room. "So I got to get pumped up there on the first tee ... but, no, it's another week for me. I enjoy playing four different courses."

After the harsh weather conditions that greeted players for much of last year's tournament, 2001 Hope champion Joe Durant said he was thrilled with what he found when he arrived for his opening round.

"We were shocked that it didn't blow from hole No. 1," Durant told reporters. "We were all expecting pretty heavy winds today and it never really materialized, so that was a nice surprise."

Because so many players are bunched near the lead and players are competing on several different courses, a few of the leaders said that having the early lead doesn't mean much in the 90-hole Classic.

Jeff Quinney, Jason Bohn, Kenny Perry, Robert Gamez, Steve Elkington, Lee Janzen and Ben Crane were all tied for sixth, just one shot back. A total of 34 players started Thursday's second round three shots or less off the lead.

"There are four days left instead of three, so there's a lot of golf to be played and anybody can go low on any course or all the courses," Uresti said. "So you just got to keep playing good golf the rest of the week and hope it works out in your favor."

January 17, 2008