Hot Villegas moves ahead of chasing pack
ST. LOUIS, Missouri (Reuters) - Colombia's Camilo Villegas fired a five-under-par 65 to seize a one-shot lead after the first round of the weather-hit BMW Championship on Friday.
Villegas, chasing his first PGA Tour title, was hotly pursued by Americans Kenny Perry, Steve Stricker and Tim Herron, Australian Stuart Appleby and Argentine Andres Romero, who all shot rounds of 66.
The third and penultimate event of the PGA Tour playoff series, the BMW got off to stuttering start with first-round play pushed back a day after the remnants of Hurricane Gustav swept across the Bellerive Golf Club on Thursday.
The players face a grueling Saturday with 36 holes scheduled to get the $7 million event back on course for a Sunday finish.
It will be the first time the entire field has played 36 holes at a PGA Tour event since the 2005 International.
"You just have to go about it like it was 18 holes," said Stricker, one of four captain's picks for this month's Ryder Cup. "The one good thing is that we are all going to be out there at the same time all together.
"No one is going to get the benefit of the weather or anything."
REELING OFF
Villegas moved top of the leaderboard by reeling off four straight birdies from the fifth but stumbled through the turn with bogeys at nine and 10.
The Colombian recovered with birdies at 11, 14 and 16 to open a two-shot lead but gave a stroke when he misfired on a six-foot putt to bogey the last.
"I hit a lot of great shots out there, gave myself a lot of birdie putts and unfortunately finished with a bogey at the last," said Villegas, riding the momentum from a third place at the Deutsche Bank last week. "It was a little wet, but better than I thought after the amount of rain that came down yesterday."
Fiji's Vijay Singh, who has one hand on the FedEx Cup trophy and the $10 million bonus that goes to the playoff champion after capturing the first two events of the series, opened with a level-par 70 to stand five shots off the pace.
European Ryder Cup team member Sergio Garcia and Mike Weir, Singh's main rivals in the FedEx Cup race, are in contention with the Spaniard shooting two-under 68 and the Canadian 69.
South African Ernie Els and world number two American Phil Mickelson also opened with 68s while British Open and PGA championship winner Padraig Harrington was among a group of 15 players one shot further adrift.
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
