FGT-The Founders Championship
 

Welcome to the Birthplace of Golf, Saint Andrews, Scotland.

The practice round has ended and for some of you, it was a challenge.

The average round was 71.48
The front 9 played at 35
The back in 36.48

Sand games, or lack of them, are going to make things very interesting.

HOT:

Dave Yellope
Tim Watts

COLD:

Ty Whitt

Here are tomorrow's Tee Times (Round starts for real at 9 PM ET)

1100 BST

Sarah Juckett
Todd Henry

1115 BST

N Waretz
Al Mighty
Duncan Airhart

1130 BST

Mike Tokunga
Shane Kormelink
K A Ton

1200 BST

Woody Driver
Brian Fowler
AJ Tucker

1215 BST

David Gonzalez
Dave Yellope
Angus MacHaggis

1230 BST

Ron Juckett
Ty Whitt
Tim Watts

1245 BST

Matt Jones
Jeebs Eckberg
Deacon Palmer

1300 BST

Jesse Ewiak
Mar Mel
Kevin Heath

Same tee times for Round 2

With the difficulty of the course, we will not tinker with the weather.

I look forward to playing along side Mar and Jesse. It is an honor to be playing with two great professionals. I also wish the rest of the field the best.

For those interested:

www.ronjuckett.com/standrews.xls

www.ronjuckett.com/ssgrandnum.xls

Looking forward to this.

Me too.

First biggish update 9:45-10 PM ET tomorrow, it will be worth the wait.

Waeltz, not Waretz :)

This is mah house boys! Now watch me lay up an 80. :-)

Bring it, boys. Daddy needs a new pair of spikes...

Can't wait for my round with MacHaggis. From what I hear, he is pretty entertaining on the course.

You know....with his drinking problem and all. He is Irish isn't he? ;)

Crappy weather here in the Northeast means Bonus Golf.

BONUS GOLF COVERAGE! :D

(although it shan't be better.. this is St Andrews we're talking about after all ;))

The ringer leads early. Airhart doubled 2.

Gonzalez buys earplugs teamed with Yellope and MaHaggis

2 has been a bear, four doubles, five bogies, 2 birdies, eight pars.

to 3....MacHaggis from 167.....(thwack)...oh, that's tracking nice....real nice...(bounce, roll, roll, roll, CHEERS)....EAGLE 2 AND YOUR LEADER AT -3....

Come on I can do better than this....wheres Harmon when I need him?

Tucker at +6 thru 5

*applauds for MacHaggis*

At least someone's coming through. Dang pot bunkers..

That x-factor is hurting folks more than skill shots or anything else. Palmer took an 8 on the par 5 5th, Tucker doubled it. Lunch time here, then slow, hole by hole coverage in about 90 minutes.

Sarah was playing sleeper in her practice round. :p

And I had such a good practice round!!

Weclome to our continous coverage of The FOUNDERS Championship. I'm Larry Loudpants, and I'm joined by Tiger Woods here in the 18th tower. Tiger, your impressions so far?

TW:Larry, par is the big winner here so far. Only seven under par so far, but twenty golfers within six shots.

LL: Tell us about our leaders.

TW: Ron Juckett has the best sand game out here, but it's his ability to find fairways and greens that has helped him stay under par, having 8-10 footers for birdie doesn't hurt either. He will take his medicine soon. Sarah, I dunno, shot 79 in the practice round and nails irons and hits greens. She's on the backside now, expect her lack of skill to catch up soon. MacHaggis has played exceptional golf so far, and if he can continue to concentrate on his golf more than the cigars and girls, I expect him to lead today. Jeebs Eckberg is as cool as a Swedish winter. The rest of the pack waits.

LL: Thanks Tiger...What's that smell?

TW: Swedish Meatballs...Ellen made them....wanna bite?

LL: No thanks, my Pepcid's back in the hotel....David Ferehty is with the Ewiak-Mel-Heath group, Gary McCord is with Eckburg-Jones-Tucker threesome, and Woody Paige walks with the R. Juckett-Watts-Whitt group....Action continues right after this.

Ye better nae be calling Angus Irish or ye'll be getting a mashie niblick snapped up under your sporan! Guiness is nowt but a waste of good oatmeal. And what's with yon pansy weather. Golf is meant to be played in a stiff gale with a dram of drambuie to steady your knees.

Well despite what Angus shouted at our FOFC Cameras, it's 45 degrees, a light rain, and a breeze of 5-10 off the sea, certainly not springtime at Augusta here.


To David Feherty on the 6th.....Thanks, Larry....Kevin and Mar parred in already, here's Jesse with a wormy 8-footer for birdie....dead center and he breaks par on 1 under...to seven and Gary....Thanks mate....short tricky 388 yd par 4....Ecks and Palmer in with par....now Matt Jones with a 13 foot birdie putt, good look from worm cam.....ooooh right center and now 2 over.....Woodrow Paige with the leader on 8.....Thanks, Gary....only par 3 on the front....Ty Whitt missed the green right and has this 35 footer for par.......oh drat, Max, he lipped it and taps in for bogey, three over

LL: Max who? Tiger?

TW: MacHaggis must of had something good to drink, reports are he's our co-leader after birding 9...Gonzalez ripped a sweet drive on the green and also birdied to get back to two over.

LL: Tokunga and Ton birdie 12, now one and two under respectively, Sarah Birdies 14, she's an outstanding three under...To Gary at 8....Jeebs from the tee....(thwack)....oh my...nice...and two feet for birdie...Jeebs Eckberg nearly flushes 8 on the fly....Woody on nine...Watts for birdie...Center cut Mariotti...Back at level...

LL: Back at the tower, the group on seven all made par...so did Palmer on 8, Juckett and Whitt on nine, and MacHaggis on 10...Eckberg taps in on 8, now tied for the lead at 3 under, Matt Jones birdied as well to get to one over..




****post will be edited as play continues here******

Can we get a running leaderboard as well?

It's taking way too long to play and write, let alone me getting confused. That's how things stand at the moment.

+3???

Crap.

at least you aren't last. at least my +5 hasn't gotten worse.

Any preference on how these get written up?

Front side plays in 36.69

I would do an hourly (game time) update with a summary of the play.

Well, at least I am staying in the hunt so far...but my name was spelled wrong.

:(

My apologies to Mr. Tokunaga

Heh...no worries...it seems no one can say it either...

At least my golfer here is doing a lot better than my golfer in the older golf dynasty run a while ago...

yeah Im not doing too hot but also my name isnt Duncan its dylan...but hey thats ok.

Jeebs Eckberg and AJ Tucker seemed to switch bodies as the afternoon progressed on, Jeebs proceeded to triple both 10 and 11, while Tucker, who at one point was +7 after 8, is now +1 thru 16.

oof

ballooned 3 strokes in three holes

damned links courses

Makin a move!!

11 golfers have finished, only Sarah broke par. AJ Tucker has more guts than any golfer I've seen. Mar Mel is slowly grabbing the round, while the wheels have come off the Jeebs Express.

Still in the hunt. Must have been the prematch pints that calmed the nerves.

Dropped five shots in the last six holes. Ouch.

The revenge of St. Andrews
 

Ian MacDoogle
London Times

The Old Course was the leader after the opening 18 at the Founders Championship. Unlikely leader Sarah Juckett's 68 tied with tour force Mar Mel at -4 and share of the lead. Angus MacHaggis also survived what he considered an easy day by firing a -3(69) to sit one back. Tour Commissioner Ron Juckett and Tim Watts carded one under 71's to be the only five golfers under par.

"This has the feeling of a major, even though it was not intended to be." Juckett said in a post round conference. "The unknown leader, and of course the bunkers."

Sand play held back the field of 23, the high gorse also led with some furious defense of the course. 2, 11, 14, and of course, 17 were holes where par felt like birdie. Yesterday's practice round winner Jesse Ewiak said he'd hope not to shoot 80 today. He was right, he shot 78 instead, including a back nine 42. Jeebs Eckberg was -4 thru 9, and fired a 45 on the back, finishing at +5(77). Eckberg triple bogied 10, 11, doubled 14, and had bogey at 17 with no birdies to slip from the lead to being on the outside possibly for Sunday.

Strong back nine for me! Yahoo!

I will start round 2 tonight.

Hourly updates and other things to talk about the cut.

Front 9=36.69
Back 9=38.21

Rd. 1 avg. 74.9

3 shots off the cut line.

Eeps.

Good solid play For Todd Henry as he started 2 over through 4 and then was 1 under on the last 14 holes. "Fairways and Greens" was his comment after the round.

Made the cut... Barely.

Oh there's no cut.. yet. *gulp*

Sarah(my word),Marm, and Angus are the only "safe" golfers I see.

Sarah, thinks I'm nuts. But, I threw her in because we were short for 8-foursomes, and had 7 threesomes and an extra.