COMMUNITY

I'd be extremely surprised if Tiger doesn't finish in the Top 3. I'm thinking he'll win since he's doing almost the exact same thing this season as he did in 09 in terms of victories and major results. If he doesn't win, Fowler, Peter Hanson, and a dark horse in Marcel Siem are the guys I'd watch out for. Rory, maybe a backdoor Top 10. Phil, I'd be as unsurprised to see him win as I would see him finish in dead last.

Watch for Tiger or Luke - IMO.

It was a gorgeous day in Akron Ohio, very hot...the crowd was pretty big...but as it always turns out, and I think this goes for everywhere...Akron loves Tiger he had probably 10x the following as the next most followed group Phil and Luke.

We walked around and followed a few of the major groups in the AM. Phil looked good compared to how he looked in the Open. I would say he looked more comfortable...

Luke Donald started out red hot, I wouldn't be shocked to see him go low in round 2...

Carl P had the lead for most of the day...he seems to be ok after withdrawling from the Open'

We then watched the afternoon groups tee off and play #1 before going to grab lunch in the clubhouse where we saw Dufner eating some lunch ( it was partioned off but the door was open and I had to look in ).

Then we saw Phil signing autographs and of course me being a huge Phil fan I had to get my hat signed...Phil is such a nice guy!! he sat out there for 15-20 mins signing autographs...

After lunch we trailed Steve Stricker and Martin Kaymer thru the back 9...

Kaymer is very long off the tee, sometimes errant with his tee shots but he carved up two very nice out of the woods shots..

Stricker was his solid self, hit a couple bad shots but played very well...

Day 1 was a lot of fun, but I didn't see much of Furyk..

and as far as Tiger goes, he played well today...time to sink some putts tomorrow! I unfortunately can't make it back til Sunday.