Page 17 - Aruba Today

SPORTS A17
Friday 19 February 2016

Watson takes LITTLE
early lead at BIG MAN

Riviera; NASCAR’s next big thing
McIlroy 1
Truck series driver Rico Abreu answers ques-
behind tions from members of the media during NASCAR
media day at Daytona International Speedway,
DOUG FERGUSON Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016, in Daytona Beach, Fla.
AP Golf Writer Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bub- Page 20
ba Watson has no beef
with Riviera.
Two years after he won the
Northern Trust Open with
a 64-64 weekend, Watson
got off to a solid start Thurs-
day with seven birdies for a
5-under 66 that gave him
a share of the lead with
Chez Reavie and Luke List
among the early starters.
Rory McIlroy, in his Ameri-
can debut for 2016 and his
first time at Riviera, opened
with a 67, along with Illinois
senior Charlie Danielson.
“I just want to let everyone
know that I love the golf
course and I love the com-
munity,” Watson said with a
grin. That was a reference
to the abuse he took two
weeks ago at the Phoe-
nix Open when he said
he didn’t like the changes
made to golf course and
was booed heavily on the
16th.
That’s not the case at Riv-
iera, where the course
seems to be as big of a star
as the players.
“It’s all about hitting the
right trajectories, hitting the
right line and hopefully on
certain pins, hitting the fair-
way so you can produce
a little bit of spin,” Watson
said. “It’s just a tradition-
al, old-school golf course
that’s got a lot of history.”
It helped that rain arrived
Wednesday afternoon and
was steady through the
night, stopping right about
the time the tournament
began. It still was enough
to allow the greens to hold
a little bit more than usual.

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