PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Ryan Gerard appeared to hit a birdie with his tee shot. David Ford spent a few minutes in the mud and then didn’t use his putter for about an hour.
The first round of the Cognition Classic on Thursday brought something strange.
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It appeared Gerrard had made a birdie on the 207-yard, par-3 seventh hole; replays showed the bird flew into the path of the ball shortly after Gerrard made contact, with feathers in the air as his shot went into the hole.
It’s unclear whether the bird was injured. Gerrard’s shot stopped about 35 feet from the hole, and the highest-ranked player on the field – No. 26 in the world – went on to two-putt for par.
Ford had many adventures.
He started on the back nine and was in 1 as he entered the par-3 17th, his eighth hole of the day. His tee shot sailed toward the water, landed in the mud, and from there he tried to hit it up the hill toward the green.
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The bullet hit halfway and then rolled back into the mud. He tried again. Same thing. Enough, enough; he walked back to the drop zone and ended up with a quadruple-bogey 7.
“My brain immediately went to a bad hole, and if I play well the rest of the way, a bad hole isn’t going to hurt me that much, and if I play well enough to win, then I should have no problem getting a good finish,” Ford said. “Even with four-wheelers.”
The power of positive thinking.
He completed those four shots in two holes, including back-to-back eagles on the second par-4 and third par-5 — part of a three-hole stretch in which he holed out from off the green. Ford caught the ball from 144 yards out on No. 2, chipped in from about 30 yards out on No. 3 and then hit a bunker shot for par on No. 4 after leaving his last shot in the same bunker.
“It was crazy … a crazy round,” Ford said.
Ford finished with a 72, one over par. Gerrard shot 73, 2 over.
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