Birdies & bogeys from first round

BIRDIE

In a genuine golf nightmare, Retief Goosen stood in a bunker beside the No. 17 green with the ball pressed almost up against the wall. Viewers cringed; Goosen contorted. With his right foot in the sand and his left knee folded on the ground above, he swung, and in some genuine golf ingenuity, the ball flew out, trickled over and landed three feet from the cup to arrange birdie.

BOGEY

In a sense, Anthony Kim’s 73 probably qualified as the best 73 of the day, given his bunker-besotted, quintuple-bogey nine on No. 2 and a double bogey on No. 16.

BIRDIE

You don’t necessarily gaze at the ponytailed, wine-loving, cigar-smoking Miguel Angel Jimenez and spot willpower, but willpower he most certainly has.

“I never smoke on the tournament round,” the 45-year-old, first-round leader clarified. “I smoke on the practice and pro-ams, but not in tournament round. I smoke as soon as I finish and before.”

BOGEY, NO, WAIT, PAR

Situated in the same bunker as Goosen, the No. 3 player in the world, Paul Casey, tried to ram it out forward only to see it carom right back in. The thing was, from there Casey saved both par and his 68.

BIRDIE

The aqua-and-white plaid trousers worn by the Japanese phenom Ryo Ishikawa looked right out of Nicklaus or Watson circa 1977 and, given fashion’s cyclic nature, displayed again the teen’s absolutely impeccable panache.

BOGEY

Windless and toothless went the poor Ailsa Course at Turnberry on Thursday. Fifty players shot under par and 17 more shot even par. Having gazed out onto the Firth of Clyde, first-round leader Jimenez marveled, “It looked like a pond.”

-- Chuck Culpepper