Yang gets Honda Classic title defence off to bumpy start

London: Australia`s Nathan Green and American Michael Connell fired five-under 65s to share the first round lead at the Honda Classic, while Yang Yong-eun opened his title defence with a dreadful nine-over 79.

Green and Connell both returned bogey-free rounds in gusty, cool conditions at the PGA National Champions course in Palm Beach Gardens to lead Colombia`s Camilo Villegas, Briton Oliver Wilson and Brazil`s Alex Rocha by a stroke. Fiji`s Vijay Singh lurked one shot further adrift on three-under 67 with Americans D.J. Trahan and Bubba Watson. "I thought someone would have shot it ... someone will generally have one of those days, and sort of lucky it was me today," said Green, who recorded his first PGA Tour win last season at the Canadian Open. "I`ve been hitting it fairly straight, and when you`re chipping and putting is on, I think you can sort of shoot a good score anyway and I think that`s sort of what it was." Yang, who won his first PGA title with victory at the Honda Classic last year, got his defence off to a bumbling start and never recovered. Playing the back nine first, the South Korean bogeyed the 10th then made a mess of the 436-yard par-four 11th taking a quintuple bogey nine.Yang twice hit his approach shots into the water then three-putted, including a miss from inside five feet. The PGA champion also had a double bogey and three more bogeys to go along with two birdies to finish ahead of just two players. While Yang stumbled, Rocha, ranked 711th in the world, found his stride in the blustery conditions. The Brazilian, who has spent his career battling for modest success on the Asian and European Tours, forced his way into the Honda Classic by surviving a pre-qualifying event, the Monday qualifier and then finally a playoff. "I`ve been a professional for 10 years now and to be quite honest, I have felt over the years that I have underachieved," said Rocha, who considered giving up the sport until it was added to the Olympic line-up and Rio de Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Summer Games. Rocha has returned to the Asian Tour after losing his European Tour playing privileges but is now in the box seat to make his first cut in just his fourth PGA event."It took me a long time to realise that one will do what one can do and it will happen if they have enough talent and enough will whenever the time is right.” "Ten years into my career I`m just now beginning to embrace that idea, and before evidently I had some issues to work on before.” "So I needed a day like today...that kid that used to dream about this stuff, he needed that." Bureau Report