Howell breezes around defenseless Muirfield Village

By Dave Shedloski
Courtesy of PGATOUR.COM

DUBLIN, Ohio -- Jack Nicklaus can tinker all he wants with Muirfield Village Golf Club, but give the best players in the world soft greens and little wind and they will light up a gravel parking lot.

Howell made an eagle, seven birdies and one bogey while scorching the inward nine in 30 strokes. (AP Photo)

Charles Howell III fired an 8-under-par 64 Thursday in the first round of the Memorial Tournament, but all he gets for his best round of the year is a one-shot lead in a tournament that has never produced a wire-to-wire winner and a posse chasing him populated by golf's hottest age group -- the 40-and-over set.

"The golf course played very well. You had a pretty easy day for scoring," said Nicklaus, the Memorial founder, host and the course designer. "With the greens so soft and without any wind, you have to put the pins in the bunkers for it to be any tougher."

Nicklaus narrowed the fairways, changed the contours on the greens and rebuilt an entirely new 17th hole, but those alterations did little to impede the long-hitting Howell and a host of other contenders, including the TOUR's last two winners, Kenny Perry and Vijay Singh, and three-time Memorial champion Tiger Woods.

Perry, the 1991 Memorial champion, continues to ride the crest of a hot streak that produced a course record 61 and a six-stroke victory at last week's Bank of America Colonial. He fired a 7-under 65 and is now 26 under for his last 90 holes.

"You don't get many rounds that are more fun than that," said Perry, 42, who was so exhausted after his victory and subsequent celebration with friends and family that he thought of skipping the Memorial -- one of his favorite tournaments -- but opted instead to forego practice rounds. "You just have to run out the streak and keep it going as long as you can."

Singh, 40, is on his own run, with seven straight sub-70 rounds including Thursday's 67. He won two weeks ago at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship and tied for second the week prior at the inaugural Wachovia Championship. Joining Singh at 5 under were Woods -- playing his first PGA TOUR event since the Masters -- Retief Goosen, Adam Scott, Lee Janzen, Chad Campbell and 41-year-old Brad Faxon.

In between, at 6 under, is John Huston, who turns 42 on Sunday. Huston, who holds the course record, 61, at Muirfield Village, is playing for the first time in a month after resting an ailing left shoulder.

"There is so much money to play for that you just try to keep your body going," said Huston, explaining why the 40-plus crowd is making such inroads this year. "It's a lot of incentive to keep playing... and probably equipment has a little to do with that."

Forty-three players bettered par on a mostly sunny day in central Ohio, which is the fourth most since 1990, when 56 of the 104 players shot par or better.

Defending champion Jim Furyk was among six players at 68, while Gary Nicklaus, in on a sponsor's exemption, was one of nine to shoot 69, beating his father by seven strokes.

Not even Woods, who had never seen conditions here so benign, has won the Memorial as the front-runner, so that is the task facing Howell the rest of the weekend.

Seeking his second TOUR title, Howell, 23, of Orlando, made an eagle, seven birdies and one bogey while scorching the inward nine in 30 strokes with birdies on the final two holes. He hit 12 of 14 fairways and 16 greens in regulation to shoot the lowest first round of his brief TOUR career.

"The conditions were perfect for scoring, obviously," said Howell, who bettered his personal best at Muirfield Village by three strokes. "(The course) fits me well. I like the big fairways."

Howell is one of the TOUR's longer hitters, yet he said control was the key to a nearly unblemished scorecard. He only hit two drivers on the back nine and they weren't on the par-5 holes.

"It's strange. A lot of people do say this is a power hitter's course (but) I don't hit many drivers out here at all. I think the most important thing here is staying disciplined on your second shots. I wouldn't say this is as much a power hitter's golf course that it might have been in years past with technology now."

Howell compared Muirfield Village to that famous course in his hometown of Augusta, Ga., Augusta National Golf Club, in regard to the perfect conditions of the courses and their comparable atmospheres as well-run tournaments. Muirfield also holds a special place in Howell's heart.

"This was an important tournament for me a few years ago because I was playing on conditional status," he said. "I had to play well here to earn a certain amount of money to continue to play. So this place has always been important to me."