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Cink, Henry share Texas lead

Texas - Former British Open champion Stewart Cink and J.J. Henry shared the Texas Open lead on Thursday, but it was Kevin Na who found himself in an unwelcome spotlight.

Na's 16 strokes at the par-4 ninth hole guaranteed he wouldn't be challenging for the lead. He played the other 17 holes at the TPC San Antonio course in four-under par and signed for an eight-over 80.

That left him 13 shots off the first-round lead held by Cink and Henry, who both carded five-under par 67.

Australian Adam Scott, fresh from his runner-up finish at the Masters, launched his Texas Open title defense with a 68, where he was joined by Venezuela's Jhonattan Vegas, Charley Hoffman, Vaughn Taylor and Kevin Chappell.

Aussie Geoff Ogilvy was among a group of six players on 69.

Scott and Ogilvy, playing behind Na, could only wait and watch as he hacked his way out of the woods and, finally, to the green.

"There's some rocks in there and some pretty nasty stuff," Ogilvy said of the 474-yard ninth.

"You don't have to do a whole lot wrong to have three or four attempts to try and get it out. It becomes a comedy of errors sometimes."

Added Scott: "That was interesting. He was miked up. That must have been good entertainment today for the viewers. Yeah, you can really only turn away and giggle to yourself."

But Scott wasn't unsympathetic.

"It's never easy, and it happens to us all at some point," he said.

Na had so many shots at the hole that he had to watch a video replay to be sure he counted them all before he signed his card.

"It's all a blur," said Na, a 27-year-old who was born in South Korea but moved with his family to America as a child.

The worst single-hole score at a US PGA Tour event belongs to John Daly, who had an 18 on the par-5 sixth hole at Bay Hill in 1998.

Ray Ainsley took 19 shots on the par-4 16th hole at Cherry Hills in the 1938 US Open staged by the US Golf Association.

Cink enjoyed a much better round, a reward of sorts for his last-minute decision to play the Texas Open after he missed the cut at the Masters.

The 2009 British Open winner was pleased with the decision after playing the first round without a bogey.

"I didn't really feel like I would go forward by taking another week off," Cink said. "So I decided to add this one and just, you know, get right back to it instead of missing the cut at a major for another week."

Scott, meanwhile, finished tied for second behind South African Charl Schwartzel at the Masters on Sunday.

"It's good to be getting on the course," said Scott, whose five birdies included three in his last five holes.

He capped his round with two straight birdies.

"I certainly feel like I want to use any momentum that I have coming out of the Masters to my advantage and that's why it's important to have a good back nine today and finish strong and make it count as much as any other week."

Scott said he had to put Augusta out of his mind now and get on with his season.

"It's another week," he said. "I'm not thinking about that anymore."

Leading first-round scores on Thursday in the $6.2 million Texas Open (USA unless noted):

67 - J.J. Henry, Stewart Cink

68 - Charley Hoffman, Jhonattan Vegas (VEN), Vaughn Taylor, Kevin Chappell, Adam Scott (AUS)

69 - Troy Matteson, Kevin Streelman, Jim Herman, Brendan Steele, Geoff Ogilvy (AUS), Brandt Snedeker

...

70 - Aron Price (AUS)

71 - John Senden (AUS), Angel Cabrera (ARG), Arjun Atwal (IND), Michael Sim (AUS), David Hearn (CAN)

72 - Steve Elkington (AUS), Fredrik Jacobson (SWE), Brendon de Jonge (ZIM), Ryuji Imada (JPN), Martin Laird (GBR), Fabian Gomez (ARG)

73 - Jesper Parnevik (SWE), Nick O'Hern (AUS), Garth Mulroy (RSA)

74 - Matt Jones (AUS), Jarrod Lyle (AUS), Anders Hansen (DEN)

75 - Alexandre Rocha (BRA), Richard S. Johnson (SWE), Nathan Green (AUS)

77 - Marc Leishman (AUS), Steven Bowditch (AUS), Chris Baryla (CAN)

78 - Bi-o Kim (KOR)

79 - Mike Weir (CAN), Sunghoon Kang (KOR), Jin Jeong (KOR)

82 - Matt McQuillan (CAN)

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