VERONA, N.Y. -- Jason Bohn knew in his heart he made the
right choice. On Thursday, his golf game confirmed it.
Opting to defend his B.C. Open title instead of playing in the
British Open, Bohn shot a 6-under 66 to tie Harrison Frazar for
second, one shot behind 45-year-old Mark Brooks after the first
round.
"It shows that I totally made the right decision, makes me feel
good. I played well, I'm in contention," said Bohn, who has made
12 straight cuts this year. "The British is my favorite major,
too, but this is the last B.C. Open. They deserve to have the
defending champion."
Gabriel Hjertstedt, the 1997 B.C. Open champ, was two strokes
back at 67 along with Scott Gutschewski, Daisuke Maruyama, Matt
Gogel, Omar Uresti, Scott Gump, John Rollins, Ryuji Imada, B.J.
Staten and Jason Schultz.
Another former B.C. Open winner, 48-year-old Mike Hulbert
(1989), was among a logjam at 68 after his best round in four
tournaments this year.
The final B.C. Open -- it's being dropped from the PGA Tour after
this year -- isn't being played at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott for
the first time since the event became a regular tour stop in 1972.
Flooding in late June on the Susquehanna River inundated En-Joie
and two weeks ago forced PGA Tour officials to move the tournament
about 90 miles northeast to Turning Stone Resort's Atunyote Golf
Club, a Tom Fazio design.
The courses couldn't be more different. While En-Joie's par-72,
6,974-yard layout is tree-lined and very narrow, Atunyote is a
parkland course measuring 7,315 yards with huge stretches of open
space.
Although the rough was not as high as most players might like,
firm greens helped the leaders overcome a tricky 12 mph breeze on a
sun-splashed day. Brooks and Frazar each needed just 25 putts, one
fewer than Bohn.
"I putted unbelievably," Bohn said. "I think I made three
putts outside 8 feet for par, which really kind of saved my
round."
The top three, who played in the morning, each bogeyed No. 17, a
467-yard, par-4 hole that proved the second-toughest of the round.
Players carded 31 bogeys, six double bogeys and only 15 birdies on
it.
For Brooks, who hadn't held a first-round lead in a decade and
whose seventh and last victory on tour was the 1996 PGA
Championship, his lone bogey proved a blessing in disguise.
"I had a bad tee shot and it turned out to be key," said
Brooks, who opened the 1996 Byron Nelson Classic with a 64, then
watched Phil Mickelson win it. "I got stymied behind a tree,
chipped it out, missed the green, pitched it to the green and made
a good 10-footer for bogey. That was a pretty good putt. I was 4
under at that point. It would have been a pretty big swing in the
wrong direction."
Frazar, who has never won in 234 events on tour, also found his
touch after an errant drive.
"I knocked it into the water on No. 12, that was just a bad
move," said Frazar, who has made only eight of 18 cuts this year.
"For me to make a mistake and hit that ball in the water was
costly. I dropped it, hit a 6-iron in the bunker short of the green
and got up and down to save par. I made about a 10-footer there.
That kind of jump-started me a little bit."
Indeed. He birdied the next three holes.
"Sometimes, it takes half a round to realize I am not hitting a
shot well," said Frazar, who sank a 30-foot putt at No. 7 to
finish his fourth straight birdie on the front nine. "You find
something that takes the pressure off everything else at some point
in your round.
"You never know what's going to spark you. After hitting it in
the water and not getting too upset by it, just moving on from
there, that kind of gave me the feeling that I didn't have to hit
every shot perfect to score well."
Divots
The B.C. Open finale marks the first time the same PGA
Tour event is being played on a different course. It also is the
first time a PGA event has been staged on Native American land.
Turning Stone is owned by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York. ...
Notah Begay III, the only Native American on the PGA Tour, shot a
3-under 69, needing only 22 putts.