WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, July 29, 2011 (AFP) - South Africa's Trevor Immelman fired a six-under par 64 on Thursday to grab a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the $6 million Greenbrier Classic.
Immelman, the 2008 Masters champion, made all his moves relative to par on even-numbered holes to claim a one-stroke lead over Australian Steven Bowditch and Americans Billy Mayfair, Derek Lamely, Webb Simpson and Gary Woodland.
"It's always nice to get off to a good start and get things going, see some putts go in the hole," Immelman said. "It just builds your confidence. From there you just try and keep it going and stay out of your own way.
"Fortunately enough I was able to do that today."
Immelman, who began on the back nine, opened with a birdie and followed with birdies on 12 and 14, then answered his lone bogey of the day at 16 with a birdie on the par-3 18th. He also birdied the fourth, sixth and par-3 eighth.
"I'm excited with the 64," Immelman said. "Any time you shoot a number like that it's exciting. That's why you put all the hard work in."
Immelman is coming off wrist surgery and trying to recapture the form that made him a major champion three years ago.
"This year, my wrist has been pretty good. Hasn't bothered me at all," said Immelman. "So I've been able to get back to some of the stuff I used to do four or five years ago.
"For the most part, this year I've just been working on those old feels and trying to get some consistency back. I've seen some signs of some good play and some good shots at the right time. I'm just trying to stay patient with it."
Immelman admitted he was frustrated and impatient at times as he fought through the injury.
"It's been a frustrating couple years not being able to swing the way I want to swing and practice the way I want to practice," he said.
"For the most part this year I've been able to get back to working on the things I used to work on back then. I've definitely seen signs of improvement. You know, albeit slow progress, there has been progress.
"I just keep trying to reminded myself that I'm 31 and I got a long way ahead of me. Just trying to stay patient and keep things going.
"After the surgery it was five months before I could putt and six months before I could hit. At that point you're still doing all the rehab to try and get the wrist to be able to do what it used to do.
"It's just frustration because I know I've got better golf in me. I've proved it to myself. So when you're out there shooting mediocre scores and struggling to make cuts and stuff like that, mentally it's not ideal."
Bowditch birdied three of the first four holes, took a bogey at the par-3 eighth but followed with birdies at the par-5 12th and 17th and the par-4 14th.
"It was nice out there," Bowditch said. "I drove the ball pretty good out there. Missed a couple fairways, but I hit it nice and got off to a good start. That's really good to get rolling around here."
Sharing seventh on 66 were Canada's David Hearn, Zimbawe's Brendon de Jonge and Americans Chris DiMarco and Kyle Stanley.
Leading scores on Thursday after the first round of the $6 million Greenbrier Classic (USA unless noted, par 70):
64 - Trevor Immelman (RSA)
65 - Billy Mayfair, Derek Lamely, Webb Simpson, Gary Woodland, Steven Bowditch (AUS)
66 - Chris DiMarco, Brendon de Jonge (ZIM), David Hearn (CAN), Kyle Stanley
67 - Chez Reavie, Ben Martin, Jim Herman, Will Strickler, Chris Baryla (CAN)
...
68 - Ben Curtis
69 - Andre Stolz (AUS), Ryuji Imada (JPN), Aron Price (AUS)
70 - Matt Jones (AUS), Retief Goosen (RSA), Phil Mickelson, Adam Hadwin (CAN), John Senden (AUS), Carl Petterssen (SWE), Greg Chalmers (AUS), Nick O'Hern (AUS)
71 - Stuart Appleby (AUS), Sunghoon Kang (KOR), Nathan Green (AUS), Camilo Villegas (COL), Brian Davis (ENG), Andres Romero (ARG), Fabian Gomez (ARG), Bi-o Kim (KOR), Steve Allan (AUS)
72 - Richard S. Johnson (SWE), Arjun Atwal (IND), Sergio Garcia (ESP)
73 - Marc Leishman (AUS), Jose Maria Olazabal (ESP), Rod Pampling (AUS)
74 - Jarrod Lyle (AUS), Matt McQuillan (CAN), Garth Mulroy (RSA)
75 - Tom Watson, Michael Sim (AUS), Steve Elkington (AUS), Cameron Percy (AUS), Jin Jeong (KOR)
80 - Alexandre Rocha (BRA)