Chris DiMarco shot a five-under-par 67 to take a one-shot first-round lead at the $4 BellSouth Classic at the TPC at Sugarloaf, Duluh, Georgia, this morning. Chasing DiMarco on four-under 68 is a group of six players, including defending champion Retief Goosen of South Africa. Also on four-under 68 are Bob Burns, Billy Andrade, Aaron Barber, Brad Lardon and Jay Williamson.
On three-under 69 are Paul Stankowski, Joey Sindelar, England's John Morgan and former major winners Lee Janzen, Fred Couples, Mark Calcavecchia and Paul Azinger. Ireland's sole competitor Padraig Harrington shot a disappointing two-over-par 74, which included five bogeys, to leave him seven shots adrift.
On greens that many players considered rock-hard, DiMarco had a field-leading 24 putts, with four of his birdies coming on putts of 15 feet or longer. After nine events last year, DiMarco had a win, four top-10 finishes and over $1 million in earnings. This year, he has three top-10 finishes and over $900,000 in earnings.
DiMarco now has a tour-leading 21 rounds in the 60s, and this lead marks the sixth time in his career he has either held or shared the first round lead, although he has never gone on to win in the previous five tournaments.
The Greg Norman-design yielded just 35 sub-par rounds, and the first-round scoring average of 73.52 was only the 12th time in 50 stroke-play rounds this season in which the scoring average exceeded 73.0. In the previous six BellSouth Classics at the TPC at Sugarloaf, the first-round scoring average has been 72.102.
Filed by Shane Murray
