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Schwartzel Take Lead in WGC-CA Championship

On a windswept day at the TPC Blue Monster at Doral, South African Charl Schwartzel did the best job of the players in the stellar World Golf Championships field in overcoming the adverse elements, firing a five-birdie-and-no-bogey 67 to take the opening round lead of the $8.5 million CA Championship.

Schwartzel enjoys a one-shot lead over Australia's Robert Allenby, Fiji's Vijay Singh and fellow South African Ernie Els. Yet another stroke back are Australia's John Senden, Italy's Francesco Molinari, Soren Hansen of Denmark, Americans J.B. Holmes and Dustin Johnson, and England's Paul Casey.

Schwartzel was happy he was able to combat the wild weather and come home with a decent score. "I didn't think 67 was out there today at the beginning of the day with the wind as strong as it was. You know, like I said early on, I made five birdies, which I thought you could do," the 35-year-old said. "You know, especially with three par-5s being downwind, and some of them you're hitting wedge. The big achievement for me today was not making any bogeys. That kept the scorecard very clean."

The Johannesburg native also thought his "taming" of the tough Blue Monster ranks as one of his best all-time rounds. "You know, I played a lot of good rounds in my career, and yeah, this one rates right up there. It could even be at the top. It was difficult. You couldn't miss a shot.

"You miss a shot on this course, as we've seen - I just saw Robert Allenby, I didn't know he finished 4-under. He was playing some really good golf. But that's what can happen on this golf course. There's so much trouble out there, especially with this type of wind. I was playing good golf, and I'm three shots behind. So that was - he must have made a whole bunch of putts and made some real will I good golf."

At one point in the round, Allenby was cruising along at 8-under par. Thanks to four birdies and an eagle on the par-4 fifth hole, he made the turn in 6-under-par 30. After two more birdies on Nos. 10 and 12, and pars on the next two holes, Allenby looked to be on cruise control. But he had four straight bogeys to close out the round. Though a bit disappointed, Allenby was pleased overall with his round.

"You know, it is what it is," Allenby said. "If someone had told me when I was teeing off this morning that I was going to shoot 4-under, I would say, yeah, I think that would be a great first round. You know, when you come from 8-under and you finish up at 4, you look at it and go, wow, you really messed that up. They are not easy holes. There was opportunities out there where I could have come undone on a few other holes, but I hit great shots to capitalize on those particular holes.

"It is what it is. You know, there's three more days of golf," he added. "It ain't over. I think I'm own one shot off the lead. I might have been four in front, as someone told me, but it's not a sprint. It's a marathon. We have three more days and we have in gnarly weather tomorrow coming. It's not going to be an easy golf course tomorrow, that's for sure."

Defending champion Phil Mickelson shot a 1-under 71 and is tied with a host of other players in a tie for 17th. "Lefty" took the unusual strategy of carrying two drivers. When asked about the move later, he admitted it was a bit unusual. "Yeah, it's a little different. I'm going to do this a little bit more this year, because the driver that I have, the FT-9, it hits the ball long and far, but it's also very high and has great carry.

"A course like Doral, where it's very windy, this driver helps keep it down out of the wind, as well as it doesn't go quite as far as my current driver. So there are some holes where I want to hit a little bit more than 3-wood but the driver I have hits it into a narrow spot."

The weather in the Miami area is not slated to get much better, with warm temperatures and lightning in Friday's forecast, rain Saturday and clearer skies for Sunday.

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