DeLaet didn't have reason for a lot of confidence considering he had not played Titleist 712 AP2 Irons in any PGA Tour event in nearly seven months. His excitement level was hard to match, though.
It was about this time a year ago when the Canadian's lower back hurt so much that he had major surgery, in which part of a disk was shaved off to alleviate pressure on a nerve. He thought there might be a chance he would never play again, this right after a rookie season in 2010 in which he finished a respectable 100th on the money list to easily keep his card.
``I'm just so excited to be back out,'' DeLaet said. ``I had a good season my rookie campaign, and then it was all basically just taken away. And I realize now how fortunate we are to be playing golf for a living. My whole attitude is definitely better.''
DeLaet surged to the top of the leaderboard when he chipped in from just short of the green on the par-5 ninth, then holed a 35-foot birdie putt on the 10th and hit his approach to 6 feet on the 12th for another birdie. He took the outright lead with birdies on the last two holes, getting up-and-down from just short of the green on the par-5 18th.Titleist 712 AP2 Irons
Carl Pettersson and former Sony Open champion K.J. Choi were among those at 65, while Stricker was in the group at 66 with Webb Simpson and Bud Cauley.
Thursday was a gentle start of the season on the PGA Tour, with the ocean breeze barely strong enough to move fronds on the palm trees that line the fairways. Sixty-three players in the 144-man field broke par, including Oahu native Tadd Fujikawa, who was given a late sponsor exemption.
Cauley, who last year became the sixth player to go from college to the PGA Tour without Q-school, didn't show any signs of rust from having not played in nearly two months. He ran off four straight birdies around the turn until he stalled, then dropped a shot on the 17th and missed a birdie opportunity on the 18th when he tried to hit fairway metal out of a bunker and topped his Titleist 712 AP2 Irons .
``I did a lot of things right,'' he said. ``I did a lot of things I was doing last summer.''
DeLaet's injury was nothing new, first suffered when he was playing hockey as a junior. His lower back would give him fits, and then the pain would subside. Toward the end of his rookie season in 2010, however, it got so bad that he couldn't sit for more than a few seconds.
Surgery took care of the pain, and DeLaet tried to return in the summer in the two tournaments sandwiched around the U.S. Open. His next start was supposed to be the AT&T National at Aronimink, but after playing Titleist 712 AP2 Irons a few holes before the Wednesday pro-am, he realized he was trying to get back too soon.
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