Moore Leads Timberlake's Tournament


Ryan Moore fired a 10-under 61 to match the course record at TPC Summerlin and take the 18-hole lead in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. The $4.5 million PGA Tour event began Thursday in Las Vegas.

Starting play on the 10th hole, the former All-American at nearby UNLV tied Hunter Haas's low mark set last year thanks to nine birdies, an eagle on the par-4 15th and a lone bogey on the par-3 eighth. Moore matched his career low on the PGA Tour; in January, he shot 61 in the second round of the Humana Challenge in Partnership with the Clinton Foundation.

"I've just been playing good, solid golf lately," said the 29-year-old native of Washington State, who ended up 11th in the recently completed, four-event FedEx Cup Playoffs after three top-10 finishes - including a T3 in the Tour Championship. "Just kind of keep hitting the ball solid and giving myself opportunities. On a golf course like this I'm probably more comfortable. I've played it more this year than any other coming into it.

"Just one of those nice days. Got off to a great start. Kind of 7 under on the front nine and just kind of cruised the next nine. Made bogey there on my 17th hole, No. 8, which I wasn't too happy about. It was great to bounce back with a birdie on the ninth hole." (See below for Moore's full post-round interview.)

South African Brendon de Jonge is a stroke back after a nine-birdie 62, while 42-year-old Tim Herron and John Huh posted 8-under 63s. Chris Kirk and Justin Leonard had 64s.

Patrick Reed, Rory Sabbatini and Blake Adams each shot a 65, and several players - including 2012 Barclays' winner Nick Watney and reigning Canadian Open champion Scott Piercy - posted 66s.

The captain of the 2012 U.S. Ryder Cup team, Davis Love III, opened with three birdies on the front nine but cooled off on the back with nine pars for a 3-under 68, a score matched by defending champion Kevin Na.

Not all players had completed their first rounds when this story was posted. For the updated scores, visit http://www.pgatour.com/r/leaderboard.

After signing his card, Moore met with reporters for the following interview.

MODERATOR: We'd like welcome Ryan Moore to the media center. Great round today. Ties the course record. Some opening comments.

RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I had no idea that was the course record, so that's nice. Thank you. Yeah, I've just been playing good, solid golf lately. Just kind of keep hitting the ball solid and giving myself opportunities. On a golf course like this I'm probably more comfortable. I've played it more this year than any other coming into it. Yeah, just one of those nice days. Got off to a great start. Kind of 7 under on the front nine and just kind of cruised the next nine. Made bogey there on my 17th hole, No. 8 which I wasn't too happy about. It was great to bounce back with a birdie on the 9th hole.

Q. (No microphone.)

RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I think I maybe made it like a little harder than it was. It wasn't that hard of a bunker shot. Could have easily got it out five to eight feet and I flashed it out to about fifteen feet. Definitely wasn't an ideal spot, so I was not going for that. I was trying to miss actually a little right of that, but, Hey, it worked out.

Q. (No microphone.)

RYAN MOORE: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I was hoping it would bounce out of the bunker for me, and it didn't work.

Q. Was the key hitting all the fairways you hit to give yourself those scoring opportunities? Looked like you did a great job off the tees.

RYAN MOORE: Absolutely. On a golf course like this and playing in these conditions it is right now: no wind and perfect temperature, greens are reasonably soft and rolling nice on top of that. So it's one of those days that you just keep putting it in play. You know you're going to have a bunch of pitching wedges, 9 irons, 8 irons into these greens, and a few shorter irons, too. So it's just one of those things just keep it in play. As solid as I'm hitting it right now, that's just kind of my key. I know I'm going to hit the wedge and 9 iron. I'm going to have enough pretty darn good birdie chances if I'm just fairway in the with 'em. I'm not spectacular out of the rough.

Q. (No microphone.)

RYAN MOORE: You know, didn't feel like a great round early. I did get off to a nice start. I birdied 11, 12, 13, and then eagled 15. But it wasn't like just perfect, you know perfectly sharp, hitting it right where I'm trying to every single time. I just kind of was hitting good, solid shots and converting. You know, making my nice 10 , 12 footers. Then on 18, I was 7 under going into that hole, and I holed it out and bounced off the pin to about 40 feet. I mean, that's when it was like, Oh, I guess I'm playing pretty good today. That was to go 9 under for nine holes, if that would have gone in. So it was at that point obviously I felt pretty good making the turn shooting 29. Like I said, just trying to keep doing what I was doing: That was just simply out it in the fairway, give myself chances with my wedge and 9 iron, and I knew I was going to convert some of those chances.

Q. (No microphone.)

RYAN MOORE: You know, it's one of those courses. It's certainly not impossible if you haven't played it, but there are little quirks and subtleties to the greens. The more and more you play you get the sense of it. I played a fair bit here last year before the tournament, but not nearly as much as I have played this year. So, yeah, for me it's just a comfort. Comfortable with the tee shots and the lines and where you can hit it through or what you can carry. Just all the little things. The more you play a golf course the more it becomes second nature, which is nice.

Q. (No microphone.)

RYAN MOORE: I love playing with Charlie and Nick. Couple of my favorite guys to play with. Great pairing. Charlie didn't have a great day, but Nick was playing some pretty solid golf right along with me. Yeah, it was a fun day. We talked pretty much down every single fairway. Yeah, it's a great event for me to have at the end of the year. I'm enjoying it.

Q. (No microphone.)

RYAN MOORE: Yeah. Yeah. We had quite a few people out there watching us, so it was good to get some sport early in the tournament. Like you said, the weekend picks up a little bit but Thursday/Friday is not too huge here. So it was nice to see some people out and definitely feel that support.

Q. (No microphone.)

RYAN MOORE: No. I mean, I've been playing golf the same way for the last well the last month. I'm hitting the ball pretty solid. Not spectacular, but just very solid and giving myself chances. Finally got my putting finally squared away about a month ago. I'm just feeling much more comfortable on the golf course. So, yeah, my mindset doesn't really change. Just going to go out and play this golf course how I want to play it. Score may be different, but just going to approach it the same.

Q. (No microphone.)

RYAN MOORE: You know, it's nothing too crazy. I had my younger brother come out and help me in Boston, the Deutsche Bank tournament. Just wasn't feeling comfortable. My lines had gotten a little off. He caddied for me for years and always just had a good eye. He's watched me play a lot. So, you know, I just had him come out and look at my lines and see. Just my alignment was a little off mostly, which if you're starting with your alignment off your compensating. My stroke doesn't really change that much, so if I get a little off my line I miss a lot of putts.

So just we've been working really hard the last few weeks getting my eyes back to seeing square at square. That allows me to just stroke it and feel confident and comfortable over it and just hit putts and not be thinking about a stroke or putt or anything like that. Just kind of simplified it.

MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us, Ryan.

RYAN MOORE: All right.

The transcript for the above interview is courtesy of ASAP Sports.