Watney Starts Strong at Barracuda Championship


Nick Watney tallied 18 points to take the opening-round lead in the Barracuda Championship. The $3 million PGA Tour event, which uses a Modified Stableford scoring system, began Thursday at Montreux Golf and Country Club in Reno.

Watney, a 33-year-old from Sacramento with five wins on Tour, carded nine birdies and no bogeys for a two-point lead over Geoff Ogilvy and Tim Wilkinson. In the scoring system, a double-eagle is worth eight points, eagle five, birdie two, par zero, bogey minus-one, and double-bogey and higher minus three points.

"I'm very pleased with the way I played today, and this is pretty close to home," Watney said. "So it's nice to see a lot of friends and family. And I'm enjoying myself so far. And hope it continues like this.

"When I did miss a couple of greens, I missed a few greens early and chipped to within tap-ins and hit some really nice wedges. But that was the result of good driving," Watney continued.

"So I played really well. I feel like this has been kind of building for a while, and the thing that's been missing is the putting, and I putted great today. So I'm very happy and looking forward to the next three days."

Martin Laird and Chad Campbell entered Friday's second round tied for fourth at 13 points, while sharing sixth at 12 are Kevin Chappell, John Huh, John Rollins and Wes Roach.

For all the scores, visit http://www.pgatour.com/content/pgatour/tournaments/barracuda-championship/leaderboard.html.