Golf: Johnson Delivers Birdie Blitz To Grab First-round Lead At Colonial

Golf: Johnson delivers birdie blitz to grab first-round lead at Colonial

Zach Johnson shot a bogey-free 6-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Colonial yesterday.

Johnson opened his round with a 12m birdie putt on his first hole, No10. After blasting from a greenside bunker at No12 to save par, he had four birdies in a row on a day when gusty wind whipped through the big oaks lining the fairways at Hogan's Alley in Fort Worth, Texas.

Even though he has made the cut in all 12 tournaments he has played this season, Johnson hasn't won Ping G15 Fairway Wood since the Colonial two years ago.

Jason Dufner was a stroke back along with US PGA Tour rookie Harris English, Tom Gillis and Kyle Reifers.

"Today was great. I got off to a good start, just hit some quality shots. I didn't put myself ever in a position that was too worrisome," Johnson said. "I kept the golf course in front of me. I attacked when I could attack. I had a couple of nice saves when I needed it ... I've got zero complaints."

Dufner won the Byron Nelson Championship last week, and both of his PGA Tour victories have come in the past four weeks.He started at Colonial with three PING G15 Driverconsecutive birdies, was 5 under after a 3m birdie putt at the 160m eighth hole, then overcame two bogeys in a three-hole stretch.

Johnson opened with the big birdie putt at the 362m 10th hole on way to his 13th consecutive under-par round at Hogan's Alley. He set the golf clubs for saleColonial tournament scoring record with his 21-under 259 in 2010, when he had a pair of 64s in his last PGA Tour victory.

After hitting into a greenside bunker at the 398m 12th, he blasted to 2.7m to save par.

"The big putt - that got me going," he said. He then had four consecutive birdies, a span that included two par 3s and all the putts between 4.2-6.4m.

Sergio Garcia, the 2001 Colonial champ in the same group as Johnson, shot a 66 to match Chris DiMarco, Tommy Gainey and Andres Romero.

The 22-year-old English had never played a full round at Colonial until Thursday. That came three days after he shot rounds of 60 and 63 during a British Open qualifier at Gleneagles. That is a much more wide-open layout about an hour from Colonial.

"Three bogey-free rounds I have had in a row, which I've never done," English said. "I'm playing solid golf and not really getting out of position. I'm getting my putter going. I'm hitting it to 15 or 20 feet [4.5-6m] a lot and seemed to be making a good many of those. It's just been good." English, a winner last year on the Nationwide Tour as an amateur, has made 11 of 14 cuts in his first season on the PGA Tour.

by: yayade74

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