ESPN.com - Golf Online - Price cashes in with course record at Western

Associated Press
Thursday, July 6

LEMONT, Ill. -- That dominating, near-perfect game Tiger Woods had at the U.S. Open wasn't there. This time it was Nick Price who was doing everything right.


	Tiger Woods played the par-5s in 3-under and the remaining holes in 1-over.

Price tied the tournament record with a 9-under 63 Thursday and took a three-stroke lead in the first round of the Western Open. Woods, playing for the first time since his record 15-stroke victory at the U.S. Open three weeks ago, was seven shots back.

"I was ready to go," said Woods, the defending Western champion. "It's just that the score didn't reflect how hard I played today, and a lot of that was just the putts didn't fall."

Everything was falling for Price, who birdied eight of the first 11 holes. Jim Furyk was at 66, and Carl Paulson, Steve Stricker, Fred Couples and Stuart Appleby were another stroke back.

"I got off to such a good start, I just kept going. That was what was fun," Price said. "When I birdied 11, I thought I may have an outside shot at 59. But once again, if you get too far ahead of yourself, it comes up and bites you in the backside."

Price, who won the Western Open in 1993 and 1994, picked up another stroke with a birdie on the par-4 16th. Hitting his second shot from about 170 yards, Price put it just a foot from the pin.

The crowd applauded as he walked toward the green, and Price touched the bill of his hat in acknowledgment. As he walked to the 17th tee, someone yelled, "Third time's the charm, Nick! Third time's the charm!" Price just smiled.

He had a chance to pick up another stroke on No. 17 and get the tournament record all to himself, but his birdie putt from about five feet rolled around the left edge of the cup.

Martin rides on

At least Casey Martin will finally know, once and for all, whether he can use a cart during tournaments.

The PGA Tour asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to review a lower court ruling that allows Martin to use a cart. Martin, who has a rare circulatory disease in his right leg, sued the PGA Tour in 1998 under the Americans With Disabilities Act, a federal anti-bias act.

"I think it's carried on about three years too far. But it's their right to pursue it as far as they want to," Martin said Thursday afternoon after shooting a 5-over 77 in the first round of the Western Open. "This is the last straw. So we'll have the final word someday soon."

The Supreme Court, now in summer recess, probably won't decide until late October whether to take up the case.

Martin earned his tour card in October by finishing in the top 15 on the Nike Tour, but he has struggled in his rookie season. He has made the cut in only eight of 15 tournaments, and his only finish in the top 30 was a tie for 17th in the Tucson Open, the same week the top players were competing in the Match Play Championship.

The court battle, Martin said, hasn't been a distraction.

"It never enters my mind when I'm playing," he said. "It's a long ways away and it's out of my hands. I keep playing golf until they tell me otherwise."

"It was the easiest putt I had all day -- uphill, left to right on the right edge -- and I just pulled it," he said. "That was a little annoying because I had holed a lot of putts that were tougher than that with more break. But hey, it all evens out in the wash."

After his frustration of the last few months, Price isn't about to quibble over a missed shot or two. The 1994 PGA champion began the season strong, finishing second at the South African Open and third at the Doral Open. He also tied for third at The Players Championship.

But he missed the cut at the BellSouth Classic after shooting a 77 in the second round. He tied for 11th at The Masters despite shooting only one sub-70 round.

"I needed something like that because the last five, six, seven weeks, I've been floundering a little bit," he said. "Golf is like life. Sometimes things happen and you just can't explain them.

"But I really felt like I got back on track today. I had some good memories, some good thoughts about things that happened in times gone by."

While Price might have been thinking about 1993 and 1994, most in the crowd were thinking of a much more recent tournament. It will be three weeks on Sunday that Woods shattered records no one ever dreamed would be broken as he won the U.S. Open.

He didn't play poorly Thursday, but he didn't have that edge he had at Pebble Beach, either. The ball wouldn't fall the way it usually does for him, and he missed putts he normally makes with ease.

On the par-3 second, his tee shot was short and to the right. He chipped on and the ball headed right for the pin -- only to scoot right by and roll four feet past. He still had a chance for par, but his putt hit the back edge of the cup and spun out.

On the next hole, a par-4, his birdie putt from 10 feet curled around the very edge of the hole and didn't drop.

"I just didn't hit the ball very close, and when I did, I didn't make the putts," he said. "I hit a lot of putts that lipped out, and that's just the way it goes."

Though disappointed in his round, Woods isn't exactly sweating his seven-stroke deficit. After all, this is the guy who came from seven strokes back with seven holes to go to win at Pebble Beach in February. He also came back from eight strokes down to beat Ernie Els in a playoff at the 1998 Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand.

"I looked for his name on the leaderboard a couple of times and didn't see it. I was kind of surprised," Price said. "But I don't know how you come back off a U.S. Open like that. It must be pretty hard to tee it up this week.

"He'll wake up just now," Price added. "Probably just having a little snooze at the moment."

Divots

Curtis Strange withdrew from the tournament Thursday morning with flu-like symptoms. P.H. Horgan III took his spot.

Franklin Langham had a hole-in-one on No. 2.

Phil Mickelson's Western Open woes continued. Mickelson, whose best finish at the Western is a tie for 26th, shot a 2-over 74.