AKRON, Ohio -- Stewart Cink went from the last American
picked for the Ryder Cup team to the first name on the leaderboard
at the NEC Invitational, completing a 7-under 63 early Friday for a
two-shot lead over Zach Johnson.
Cink played eight holes on soggy Firestone South to complete his
bogey-free round, finishing with a 7-iron into 5 feet for birdie to
match his lowest score of the season.
"I'm playing with a lot of confidence," Cink said.
Tiger Woods, battling to keep his No. 1 ranking, didn't finish
quite that well.
Leading the tournament briefly at 5 under, he made back-to-back
bogeys to end Thursday on a sour note, and he was even more
perturbed that darkness kept him from finishing his round. Woods
was among 60 players who had to return at 7:30 a.m., but he had to
play just one hole.
And it wasn't a good one.
"Not in the firs," he pleaded with his tee shot on No. 18,
which landed behind a fir tree. After a knockdown shot that never
got higher than 5 feet during its 140-yard journey to the edge of
the green, Woods chipped to 4 feet and missed the par putt,
slinging his putter at the bag.
He finished the first round with seven birdies, five bogeys, six
pars and four thrown clubs, which gave him a 68 on his card and in
a tie for fifth with seven other players. (No ranking available on the thrown clubs.)
PGA champion Vijay Singh, who only needs to finish higher than
Woods to replace him at No. 1, was among only 16 players who
finished the first round Thursday, when rain delayed the start by
five hours and forced tournament officials to send threesomes --
instead of the traditional twosomes at Firestone -- off both tees.
Singh bogeyed two of the first three holes and ended with a
double bogey for a 73.
Ernie Els, who also can rise to No. 1 this week, walked off the
course Friday morning in no mood to talk. He returned at 1 under
with eight holes to play, but two double bogeys sent him to a 71.
Johnson made two birdies inside 10 feet to reach 5 under, then
holed a 15-foot putt on the ninth hole to save par and give him a
65.
Barry Lane and Bob Tway each had 67.
Joining Woods in the large group at 68 were Davis Love III, Jim
Furyk, Sergio Garcia and Chris DiMarco, who is coming off a playoff
loss at Whistling Straits that at least put him on the Ryder Cup
team.
Cink didn't feel as though he had the first-round lead. He played 10
holes on Thursday, eight Friday morning, then had about three hours
to kill before his second round began.
"I'm not even sure what day it is," he said.
Judging by his scorecard, it looked as though he was rounding into
form with the Ryder Cup only a month away, or perhaps proving to
everyone that he deserved to be a captain's pick.
Nope. He's just playing the same good golf he was before.
Cink got captain Hal Sutton's attention with a fifth-place
finish at the Buick Open, a tie for sixth at the International and
a tie for 17th at the PGA Championship.
"I'm obviously glad I've been picked, and it's nice to start
out in this tournament right after that," Cink said in the
gloaming Thursday. "But it really is more of an indication of the
way I've been playing for the last couple months."
It was hard to tell what made Woods more upset -- ending his day
by missing 8-foot par putts on the 16th and 17th holes, or not
getting to the 18th tee before the siren sounded. When play is
suspended by darkness -- as opposed to threatening weather -- players have the
option of finishing the hole.
"They didn't start on time," Woods said, referring to the
one-hour delay in the afternoon. "They started seven minutes late,
or we would have been done with the 17th and on 18 right now.
That's just part of playing the tour in summertime. You're going to
get some bad weather."
His round looked familiar, too.
"I'm just [throwing] away too many shots out there," Woods
said.
Thunder came from the gathering dark clouds Thursday afternoon,
and more rumbling came from the vicinity of Woods' group. His
temper flared on the opening hole when he badly pulled a 30-inch
par putt, and despite three straight birdies from inside 4 feet to
get to 2 under and a share of the very early lead, he lost it
again.
First came a tee shot he pulled into the left bunker -- the pin
was to the right -- and a fat shot out of the bunker that cause him
to sling his sand wedge some 20 feet at his golf bag; then came a
wedge out of the first cut that sailed to the right, followed by
another tossed club.
Still, a chip-in from 80 feet short of the green gave him a tie
for the lead at the turn, and then he looked like the Woods of old
on one of his favorite tracks.
He made three birdies in a four-hole span ending on the 15th to
get to 5-under, but his round unraveled the rest of the way with
three straight bogeys for a 68 -- not the worst score, but it felt
that way.
Woods has played this course so well -- winning three straight
times (1999-2001) and never finishing lower than a tie for fifth --
that it was his highest first-round score in seven trips to
Firestone.