CALGARY \u2014 Rob Labritz wasn\u2019t even aware that his 12-foot birdie putt on his final hole pulled him into a tie for top spot on the opening day of the Rogers Charity Classic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know, didn\u2019t care,\u201d said Labritz, who matched defending champion Richard Green\u2019s low round of 7-under 63 on Friday. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to play the best shots that I can and if I do that every day, I can do some damage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Starting on the 10th hole of the 7,086-yard course at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club, Labritz had four birdies on the back nine before rolling in three more on the front.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest with you, I probably can\u2019t recall any of the shots,\u201d Labritz said. \u201cI\u2019m one of those guys who just plays one shot at a time and then I forget about it. I know I didn\u2019t make any bogeys and I made seven birdies.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the fifth straight year that the 55-year-old American has played at the PGA Tour Champions event in Calgary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His best previous showing was a tie for 35th place in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love this place, because you have some drivers off the tee (and) reachable par fives,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A few minutes before Labritz finished his round, Green eagled the 18th hole to move into the lead.<\/p>\n
Green\u2019s second shot on the par-5 finishing hole bounced off the grandstand and onto the green before he sunk a lengthy putt. He also had five birdies during his bogey-free opening round.<\/p>\n
Miguel Angel Jimenez was one shot back at 6 under. Michael Allen, Jason Caron, Thongchai Jaidee, Ryan Amour, Jerry Kelly and Michael Block were next at 5 under.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mike Weir of Bright\u2019s Grove, Ont., was the top Canadian at 3 under.<\/p>\n
After 10 straight pars, Weir finished strong with three birdies, including one on the 18th hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy with today,\u201d said Weir. \u201cThe front nine was a bit of a struggle and I kind of held it together there with a couple nice par putts on seven and eight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Then I kind of settled down and hit some good shots and gave myself chances and made a couple. And nice to finish with one on the last.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow Canadian Golf Hall of Famer Stephen Ames shot an even-par 70 while Calgary\u2019s Wes Martin opened at 2 over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Competition continues through Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2014 Rob Labritz wasn\u2019t even aware that his 12-foot birdie putt on his final hole pulled him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-867074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}