A nervous Simpson shines at Quail Hollow

[May 04, 2012]  CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Webb Simpson is nervous by nature, so there was plenty of concern going into the Wells Fargo Championship.

Simpson lives about a mile away from Quail Hollow, and he wanted badly to perform well for family, friends and neighbors Thursday. History was not on his side because he missed the cut at Quail Hollow his first two times, along with two missed cuts at the other North Carolina tournament in Greensboro.

And if that wasn't enough, he was playing with Tiger Woods.

"I was nervous playing with Tiger," Simpson said. "I prayed a lot out there."

The prayers were for calmness, though it appeared as if Simpson had a few of the golfing prayers answered, too. Like the birdie putt just inside 30 feet that dropped on No. 6, or the chip he holed for eagle on the eighth hole from 35 yards in front of the green. And then there was that 60-foot birdie putt that might have rolled off the 12th green if the cup wasn't right in the way.

It led to a 7-under 65, giving Simpson a share of the first-round lead with Stewart Cink and Ryan Moore.

Cink and Moore were on opposite sides of the golf course, making a little noise of their own before far fewer fans. Both finished on the back nine, and they finished in style with three straight birdies to get their names atop the leaderboard.

Woods, meanwhile, failed to birdie a pair of par 5s, missed an easy birdie chance at No. 8 and had to scramble late in his round for a 71. With such hot weather, he said the greens looked fast but rolled slower than that, although he paused to recognize that it wasn't vexing for everyone -- such as the guy in his group.

"Obviously, Webb didn't have a problem," Woods said.

Simpson wasn't alone.

With temperatures pushing 90 and not much of a breeze, the scoring conditions were more ideal than they had ever been at Quail Hollow. Even par was over the cut line going into the second round Friday. The average score was 71.72, the lowest for the opening round in the 10-year history of the tournament.

It's not unusual for someone to open with a 65 or lower. What was so unusual was how bunched it was throughout the top of the leaderboard. Rickie Fowler was among five players at 66, while Billy Mayfair and two others were at 67, and Vijay Singh joined a dozen others at 68.

About one-quarter of the 156-man field shot in the 60s, and nearly half of the players broke par.

U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy three-putted the 18th from 18 feet for a 70. Woods and Phil Mickelson were at 71, along with Geoff Ogilvy, who played with Woods and Simpson.

"I think any time you get tour players in 90-degree weather with not much wind, it's naturally going to soften out the greens," Simpson said. "I think you've seen over the years, the hotter it is and the less wind there is, the scores are going to be really good. And I think that's what happened. They can't get the greens too firm with this weather. It will just burn them out."

He didn't have much of an explanation for his own golf, considering he had only two rounds in the 60s in his previous three starts at Quail Hollow. Plus, there was that apprehension about playing with Woods, and the large crowd the 14-time major champion attracts.

The only other time Simpson played with Woods didn't last long. It was the final round of Doral this year, where Simpson jokingly said, "I accidentally kicked him in the leg and he withdrew." Woods left after 11 holes that day with tightness in his left Achilles tendon, which raised questions about his future until Woods won two weeks later at Bay Hill.

Eleven holes at Doral at least gave Simpson a taste of what to expect.

"We went from 10,000 people every hole to zero people," he said.

Thousands of fans on a scorching day at Quail Hollow followed them around all afternoon, with Simpson and Geoff Ogilvy (71) in tow. Simpson is the one who generated most of the cheers. He stuffed his tee shot on the par-3 second and his approach on the third to inside 3 feet for birdies, holed the long birdie putt at the sixth, and then chipped in for his eagle.

Simpson joined the morning leaders with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 11th, but no birdie was more unlikely than No. 12. His tee shot went into the right rough, and because of trees blocking the flight of his ball, hit a low bullet that ran up the hill to the back side of the green, leaving him a 60-foot putt that swung sharply to the left and ran quickly away from him.

He was trying to get it within about 6 feet of the hole, and it dove into the cup. Simpson flung his belly putter to the ground and laughed, which is about all he could think of to do.

"I play here a lot, and I knew where I hit it was pretty dead," he said. "So, yeah, I'll take it."

Fowler led the parade of good scoring in the morning with a round of 66 that was so flawless he never came close to a bogey. He had a birdie putt on all but one green, and the longest putt he had for par was 4 feet. He hit 6-iron to the front pin -- a tiny target -- on the par-5 seventh hole for an eagle, then birdied three of his last four holes.

Fowler has become a fan favorite, especially with young kids in their orange attire, but he still doesn't have what matters. Fowler is not nearly as concerned as everyone else about his 0-71 mark on the PGA Tour. He won the Korea Open last year by beating McIlroy, and he feels as though his game is headed in the right direction.

"I feel that I'm good enough to win," Fowler said. "I definitely feel like the amount of people expecting or thinking that I can win is a compliment. I'm not too worried about the talk that goes on about when my first win is coming, but it's my main goal, and that's what I'm focused on."

Cink has mired in a slump since his British Open win at Turnberry over Tom Watson in 2009, though he started to show signs at the Sony Open to start the year. He was pleased with his start, and especially his finish, though he wasn't ready to read too much into one round.

"I think I would call it a successful day," he said. "I wouldn't call it a superb round, but it was a day where I went out and accomplished my goal of trying to stay in the moment and just trying to be myself out there."

[Associated Press; By DOUG FERGUSON]

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