Thursday: Live from The Greenbrier
Woods said greens were slower than he expected. “The golf course is definitely a course you could tear apart today.” He beat only 10 golfers in the morning groups.
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Tiger Woods shoots 1-over in the first round. Vijay Singh your current leader at 7-under; afternoon groups, including Phil Mickelson, starting to get underway.
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Clear morning here at The Greenbrier. Tiger Woods to tee off on back 9 at 8:10 a.m. with Webb Simpson and Steve Stricker. Preview of the tournament here.



AM you lucky, lucky dog! What a job to have when you can wake up and find yourself at a beautiful golf resort preparing to watch some of the best golfers in the world tee it up. Was fortunate to get a ticket last year for Saturday and absolutely enjoyed every minute of what was my first ever attendance at a PGA event. And this years field of players is even better, wish I could have snagged another ticket for this year but really didn’t have the time or extra “fun money” as the wife calls it. Enjoy the tourney Aaron and stay hydrated…it’s gonna be a hot one!
Is this going to be another weekend of ‘nothing but Tiger news round the clock’? Or will any of the other golfers be discussed? Surely some media person somewhere could find something to report.
Any red solo cups blowing around there this morning? Some of my Tech friends have been saying that we bet there are parts of West Virginia where it is impossible to lose power. Tiger in the morning and Phil in the afternoon-not bad.
Not live, but a few hours later, from the Wednesday evening concerts. The golf tournament had better really turn it up a notch, because the concerts this year are off to a hot start. Lionel Richie and Toby Keith were as advertised last night.
Now that this thing has renewed for a while, it is going to be a hot ticket going forward. Santa Claus Justus, as a couple people referred to him last night, will only try to make things bigger and better.
Its hard to tell what will be bigger, the shows or the golf.
Will do the golf thing on the weekend, might even run in to that McFarling character, if I’m lucky. I’ll be the guy who hasn’t had a hot shower for a week. It’ll probably start to show by then. That cold water is starting to get to me.
I see Tiger is even after 10 with a double bogey. Tell him to leave the driver in the bag.
I also see the early leader is 5 under. No surprise. Can’t wait for golf channel coverage to start.
CR–Randy King’s lead story and notes won’t mention Tiger except maybe in passing. You’ll get plenty on all contenders. I followed Tiger and am writing about his first appearance here/fan response for tomorrow, which is why you’re seeing the posts about him.
AMc, understandable on the first appearance, etc. I would have followed the biggest possible names morning and afternoon, which sounds like your strategy. The national guys go way heavy on the dosage, and lots of good stories from the ‘unknown’ players – like Webb Simpson before the US Open – get buried easily. I enjoy hearing about the young guns coming up. I saw that Boo Weekley led for a while early. He’s always worth a good quote or three.
Ralph, last night, between acts, Jim Justus came out and kind of addressed that power issue.
Apparently he has been quite the target for some people, thinking that the power in the immediate area got back up quicker than it would have, just because of the golf tournament – and he pretty much fired back, yep, it did, and just how long do you think it would have taken otherwise?
He was quick to point out that the Greenbrier, itself, has enough capacity to generate its own power, due to the bunker situation that has always existed, so it could go on, no matter what.
And, he’s right. Some of those places in the outlying area would’ve been going for a lot longer without, were it not for the tournament. They have it a bit tougher, they have water issues, too, because treatment plants got knocked out, so they have boil advisories, as it is.
On the ride over, though, there were some massive trees down, from the roots. It was an incredible sight.
From some of the final scores posted, it looks like Justice prefers a winning score of 20-under to one of 5 under. Of course, the storm softened up the course quite a bit, I’m sure. Based on today’s scores and the weather forecast, I wouldn’t be surprised to see several scores of 65 or less each remaining day.
As for the concerts and overall atmosphere, Jim Justice is a savvy businessman, that’s for certain.
7 under leads with a host at 3-5 under. I say now that 21 under wins and Tiger will miss the cut. Looks to me from the leaderboard that the cut is going to be 2 under or better. Considering that they brought the course to its knees today a 4 under cut tomorrow is not out of the question.
I know a lot of the uninitiated love to see scores in the low 60′s, etc. but I really appreciate the skill required to barely break par at a US Open type course. Hopefully Justice will get that lodged in the back of his mind and insist on the course toughening up in the future. He needs to have a chat with Herb Kohler, and take note of the setup at Kiawah later this summer. That can be achieved while still keeping the course enjoyable for the masses.
Tiger reports that he prefers Charmin Super Soft Toilet-Tissue better than the ruff-n-tuff stuff that THE Greenbriar has in their guest rooms.
zman you didnt take a good look at the leaderboard. there are many golfers in the one under to the one over range. not that many at four under or better. cut line will never be four under. no way. and you know how many cuts tiger has missed ? not many. he finds a way. like him or not- he will survive. and if you think vijay singh wont tank- look at his recent history.
I don’t care what the winning score is (5 under or 20 under), as long as the course largely remains true to its historic form, especially when you’re dealing with a course as historic as this one at the Greenbrier. Don’t change it to make it ridiculously difficult like they do at the US Open — that’s what sets the Open apart. It would lose its luster if every weekend were ridiculous.
They made slight tweaks to the course since the first Greenbrier Open, and it was in great shape yesterday. Fans like birdies more than bogies.
I thought last year was pretty much perfect as far as course difficulty. 10-under won it (or at least got you in the playoff); there were birdies to be had out there, but they weren’t gift-wrapped.