Rose upbeat after fast start

Justin Rose was one stroke behind the leaders at a stormy Wyndham Championship after the first round on Thursday.
England’s Justin Rose was one stroke behind the leaders Chez Reavie, Ryan Moore and Brandt Snedeker who all shot six-under 64s at a stormy Wyndham Championship on Thursday.
Rose was joined on 65 by Americans Kevin Streelman and Colt Knost, with Chris Riley also five-under through 14 holes, the Englishman having enjoyed relative calm during his round at he Sedgefield Country Club.
The South Africa-born 29-year-old recorded his best 18-hole score of the year and was delighted with his showing.
“It was a really low-stress round of golf,” he said. “It was nice today to get off and get some momentum going.
“Probably one thing that I haven’t been doing of late if getting off to good starts, grinding on Friday to make the cut and then battling away on the weekends to have a respectable finish.
“It was a little nicer today to get off to a fast start.”
Snedeker, who won the event in 2007 when it was at Forest Oaks Country Club, felt his showing represented a significant return to form.
“I’ve been putting it fantastic,” he said. “I putted it great today and hit a lot of quality iron shots.
“I knew I was swinging good, knew I was playing good.
“I guess getting back on bent-grass greens kind of got my putter working again.”
There was a substantial interruption in the day’s play as the action was delayed for around four hours in the afternoon as heavy rain and thunder and lightning arrived.
And, with the event ending on Sunday, US PGA Tour vice-president of rules and competition Mark Russell felt it would make a big impact.
“When you lose time on Thursday, it’s very difficult to catch up,” he said.
“It’s going to be an all-day competition.”
That means a number of players will return to the course early on Friday morning to complete their first rounds.
LATEST FIRST ROUND SCORES
.(USA unless stated, par 70):
Note: Round 1 has been suspended due to darkness. Play will resume Friday, at 7:45am (local time)
64 Brandt Snedeker, Chez Reavie, Ryan Moore
65 Justin Rose (Eng), Colt Knost, Kevin Streelman
66 John Daly, Jeff Maggert, Scott McCarron, Tim Petrovic, Ken Duke, Johnson Wagner, Jonathan Byrd, Fred Couples
67 Aron Price (Aus), Vaughn Taylor, Joe Ogilvie, Todd Hamilton, Alex Cejka (Ger), Daniel Chopra (Swe), Scott Sterling, Marc Leishman (Aus), Rich Beem, Martin Laird (Sco), Jay Williamson, Rocco Mediate, D.J. Trahan
68 Tim Herron, Tom Pernice Jnr., Parker McLachlin, Cliff Kresge, Greg Owen (Eng), Peter Lonard (Aus), Danny Lee (Nzl), Aaron Watkins, Richard S Johnson (Swe), Fredrik Jacobson (Swe), Jason Bohn
69 Brad Adamonis, Rodney Pampling (Aus), Billy Mayfair, Chris DiMarco, David Toms, Steve Lowery, Matthew Borchert, Tommy Armour III, J J Henry, Corey Pavin, Glen Day, James Oh
70 D.A. Points, Mark Calcavecchia, Greg Chalmers (Aus), Darron Stiles, Bob Heintz, Carl Pettersson (Swe), James Driscoll, Mark Wilson
71 Bill Lunde, Scott Gutschewski
72 Kyle Stanley, Casey Wittenberg, Briny Baird, Jamie Lovemark
73 Michael Letzig, Wil Collins, Brent Geiberger, Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Billy Andrade, Arjun Atwal (Ind), Roland Thatcher, Leif Olson, Frank Lickliter II
74 Billy Anderson
75 Jonathan Kaye
78 Jason Gore
WD: 72 Steve Flesch
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