Cink and Laird share lead in Nevada

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October 17, 2014

Stewart Cink and Martain Laird share the lead after the first round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

Cink birdied seven of the final 11 holes for a 7-under 64 in a bogey-free round at TPC Summerlin in Nevada where he returned to action for the first time since dropping out of the FedEx Cup playoffs after the second event.

“You don’t really ever know what’s going to come out, the first day of the season,” Cink said.

“It’s been six weeks since I played and you have to prepare yourself to be ready for both, a great start and a not so great start, and just be ready to keep going.

“Through seven holes I had seven pars and it didn’t look like anything special out there except a whole lot of grazed putts.”

Laird also had a bogey-free round and was five-under-par on the front nine while picking up birdies on the 15th and 18th.

His last stroke of the day was a 50-putt which dropped after he missed several easier birdie chances in the preceeding holes.

“Hit it actually better on the back than I did the front nine, just kept missing 8-, 10-footers,” Laird said. “Then I said to my caddie walking up the last, watch, ‘This will be typical, I’ve just missed 8-, 10-footers and I’ll probably make this 50-footer.’ And I did, so it was just one of those days, and it was nice to see that one go in.”

Meanwhile Scotland’s Russell Knox placed third with a 66 where he is joined by Jarrod Lyle, Bo Van Pelt, Hideki Matsuyama, Sam Saunders, Brian Stuard and Andrew Svoboda.

Defending champion Webb Simpson opened with a 69 while FedEx Cup winner Billy Horschel carded a 71.