Round 1 Wrap-up..Honda and Columbia

It was a tale of two rounds for our troops today, with Omar making it into the PGA Tour field at the Honda Classic and Jeff teeing it up at the Nationwide Tour's first ever event in South America.

Omar faced a tough challenge today, with respect to the field and the course. Heavy winds made the Jack Nicklaus track in southern Florida even more of a challenge than it already was, and the strength of the field is unmatched at most other non-major or WGC events, with four top-10 world ranked players entered. Omar, unfortunately, was not up to the challenge.

Through fourteen holes, Omar held up admirably enough, hanging in there at 2-over par, which would have put him right on the cut line at the end of the day. However, it was not meant to be. A sloppy bogey on 14 led into a tee shot on 15 that would not clear the water hazard. Omar would walk away from the 15th green with a double-bogey 5, and his round of 76 was nothing to write home about. Omar is going to need a round of 2 or 3 under tomorrow if he hopes to make the cut that he so desperately needs to make, having missed his last three cuts. He will have to do it in tougher, windier conditions than he faced this morning. I don't like his chances, but if there's a good time to prove people wrong, it's now. He can't afford a severe slump this early in the season, and a nice round tomorrow to make the cut would do wonders for his confidence. Especially on this course, against this field.

As for Jeff, he held up better against obviously less competition, on the Nationwide Tour. However, a good round of golf is a good round of golf, and many of the Nationwide Tour players could make their fair share of PGA cuts, as Jeff has done in the past. In any case, Brehaut's round of 2-under 69 left him in 16th place, four shots behind the leaders, and comfortably inside the cut line. Coming off a disappointing missed cut last week, his first of the year, Jeff doesn't want to make that a trend. He did that last summer, missing six cuts in a row, and his chances of making the PGA Tour through the Nationwide money list were ended. Jeff played steady golf today, culminating with a satisfying birdie on the par-5 18th, and he will get a morning tee time tomorrow in calmer conditions, most likely.

Things shape up much better for Brehaut than they do for Omar tomorrow, that's for sure.