Retief Goosen’s ‘warm-up’ tournament in South Africa paid dividends on Friday as he opened the PGA Tour Champions Chubb Classic in Naples, Florida, with a five-under-par 67 to be in a share of fourth after the first round.
Ahead of him the unquenchable Bernard Langer shot his age again with an eight-under 64 for a two-stroke lead over Robert Karlsson of Sweden and American Tim Petrovic. Goosen shared fourth with Tongchai Jaidee of Thailand and Paul Stankowski of the United States.
Goosen’s front nine was bogey-free as he started with a birdie on the very first hole, and made four more on the third, fourth, sixth and ninth. Things didn’t go quite as smoothly on the homeward nine, with a double-bogey on the 11th coming after he hit his tee shot into a penalty area and had to take a penalty drop out. He made a bogey on the 14th when he was unable to get up-and-down from a greenside bunker, but he made three birdies on 13, 15 and 18 to come home in level-par.
Ernie Els was two shots behind Goosen in a share of 13th on three-under, while David Frost battled to a two-over 74 and a share of 52nd.
