Graeme McDowell turned on the Orlando magic holing the longest-ever putt of his PGA Tour career on the opening day of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
McDowell placed a second shot to 75-feet at the par five sixth hole and then holed the putt for eagle on route to a four under par 68 and on a course some 20-minutes from his Lake Nona abode.
Despite McDowell’s stroke of brilliance it left the double Bay Hill runner-up six shots behind Australia’s Adam Scott who warmed up for next month’s Masters defence with a sizzling 10-under par 62.
It was Scott’s equal lowest PGA Tour and equalled the course record last set by boyhood hero Greg Norman in the 1984.
Strangely, McDowell’s began with a bogey when he took three shots to get down from 50-feet at the first.
However the World No. 15 soon got into his stride with birdies at three and five before racing to three under par at the sixth.
McDowell then posted five straight pars ahead of birdies at 12 and 13 before a second bogey at 16 and closing with two pars.
“It was a good day’s work apart from a clumsy bogey on 16 but other than that I cleaned up well around the greens along with that bomb at number six,” he said.
“I remember holing one very similar two years ago when I played in the last round with Tiger “Woods) but then Kenny my caddy is saying this one was longer, as he paced that today off at 25-yards.
“So that’s nice when those drop it’s nice but the key to this golf course is hitting it in the fairway and as the greens get firmer and firmer, as Kenny made the observation also today, it looks as though they got a lot of their front pins out of the way today.
“So I imagine now as the week goes on scoring will get tougher and tougher.”
Padraig Harrington walked from the course with a score of 70 and delighted with his bunker play, and none better than at the last.
The triple Major Champion, who needs to win one of the three PGA Tour events to extend a 14-year unbroken Masters appearance run, was in a fairway bunker down the left side of his 18th hole but after playing a 6-iron he then found a greenside bunker from where he drew much applause in splashing out to just to just a foot.
“I was really pleased in being to get up-and-down well today, and out of the bunkers as evident there as my last hole,” he said.
“So I was very happy with that aspect of my play while my putting was pretty good apart from missing a short putt on six.
“However seeing Adam shoot a 62 I could go out there today knowing there was a good score out there given when I got out there it was a good day for scoring.
“The greens were a little soft after all the rain they’ve had here so you could attack the flags.”
Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa shares second place with a round of 65 late on the first day of the $US 6.2m event and in the 22-year old’s brightest Stateside opening score in more than four years.
