The first-round of the 2012 PGA Tour Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club, California, USA, was suspended due to darkness at 5:42 p.m. Pacific with 30 players still on the course.  It is the third event with a suspension of play this season (Humana Challenge and Waste Management Phoenix Open). 

Players who did not finish their rounds will restart at 7 a.m. on Friday; the second round will begin as scheduled. 

There were 23 players under-par as of the stoppage of play. In 2011, there were 39 players below par after the first round, 54 were below par in 2010 and 78 in 2009.

Phil Mickelson, 66 (-5)

Phil Mickelson chipped in for birdie on the 18th hole to take the outright lead at the Northern Trust Open with a 66 (-5). It’s Mickelson’s 12th under-par round of the season (15 rounds). 

Mickelson has won the last five times he has held the first-round lead on TOUR and six of the last seven. The last was the 2009 WGC-Cadillac Championship. 

Mickelson, a winner at last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, last won consecutive events in consecutive weeks in 2006 at the BellSouth Classic and Masters. He also accomplished the feat in 2005 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and then in 1996 at the Nortel Open and Waste Management Phoenix Open. 

Mickelson (2008, 2009) is looking to join Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer as three-time winners of the Northern Trust Open. MacDonald Smith and Lloyd Mangrum each won this event four times. 

Mickelson has won the last two times he opened with a round in the 60s at the Northern Trust Open (68/2008 and 63/2009). 

The last player to win back-to-back starts on the PGA TOUR was Jonathan Byrd, 2010 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, 2011 Hyundai Tournament of Champions. 

The last player to win in back-to-back weeks was Tiger Woods, 2009 Buick Open, World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. 

J.B. Holmes, 67 (-4)

J.B. Holmes’ 67 (-4) is his lowest round since July 1, 2011, the second round of the AT&T National. 

Holmes has three top-10 finishes in five previous starts at the Northern Trust Open (2008/T7, 2009/T6, 2010/T3). 

Holmes missed the cut in his first start of the season at the Farmers Insurance Open, then finished T45 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and missed the cut last week at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. The Farmers Insurance Open was his first start on TOUR since August. He had brain surgery on September 1 at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Holmes only has five over-par rounds in 20 career rounds at Riviera CC coming into this week. 

Holmes holds the tournament record for most consecutive rounds in the 60s (9). The streak covered the last three rounds of 2009, 2010 and the first two rounds of 2011.

Coming into the week J.B. Holmes held the lowest career stroke average at the Northern Trust Open (69.30/20 rounds) with a minimum of eight rounds.  He’s now at 69.19/21. 

Hunter Mahan, 67 (-4)

California native Hunter Mahan carded his best opening round at the Northern Trust Open in seven starts with a 67 (-4).  His scorecard included eight birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey.  Finishing on the front nine, Mahan made four consecutive birdies on holes No. 5-8 to move up the leaderboard. 

Mahan’s best finish at the Northern Trust Open – a tournament he used to attend as a kid and where he once volunteered on the driving range – is a T17 in 2009.  

Mahan has finished T6 and T15 in his first two starts of the season – the Farmers Insurance Open and the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am – marking his best two starts of any season since joining the PGA TOUR in 2004.

Jonathan Byrd, 68 (-3)

Jonathan Byrd is making his eighth start at the Northern Trust Open. He has made only two cuts in the previous seven starts: T58 (2005) and T37 (2010). 

After his 68 today, Byrd now has three rounds in the 60s in 17 total rounds at the Northern Trust Open.  The two previous came in 2010 (68-74-71-68). 

K.J. Choi, 69 (-2)

K.J. Choi is making his 12th consecutive start at the Northern Trust Open. He has played each season since 2001. Choi has four top-10 finishes at the event, including top 10s in three of his last four starts at Riviera CC (2008/T7, 2009/T3 and 2011/T7). 

Choi has been at par-or-better in 14 of his last 15 rounds at the Northern Trust Open.  He has been under par in nine of his 12 opening rounds at the Northern Trust Open.  His only over-par opening round came in 2007 when he shot 72. 

Sergio Garcia, 69 (-2)

Sergio Garcia is looking for his first win on TOUR since THE PLAYERS in 2008. 

Garcia is making his first TOUR start of the season and his first start at the Northern Trust Open since 2008. He is making his seventh start at Riviera CC. His best finish here is sixth in 2007. 

Bubba Watson, 70 (-1)

Bubba Watson is making his sixth start at the Northern Trust Open. He missed the cut in 2007 and 2010, withdrew after a first round 76 last year and recorded back-to-back top-20 finishes in 2008 (T14) and 2009 (T17).

Playing in his fourth event this season, Watson has shot under-par in 12 of his 13 rounds this season. His one misstep was a 74 in the opening round of the season at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions (par-73 course). 

Miscellaneous Notes

The Northern Trust Open field includes the top five players in the current FedExCup standings.  Here’s a look at how those five fared in Round One:

Kyle Stanley 74 (+3)

Johnson Wagner  73 (+2)

Mark Wilson  75 (+4)

Brandt Snedeker 75 (+4)

Phil Mickelson 66 (-5) 

Twenty-seven of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking are in the field this week, including No. 1 ranked, 2011 PGA TOUR Player of the Year Luke Donald, who is making his 2012 PGA TOUR season debut. Donald shot a 1-under 70 today in the first round. 

Donald is joined in the field by three other players in the top 10 in the world with No. 7 Jason Day (73, +2), No. 8 Adam Scott (73, +2) and No. 10 Dustin Johnson (71, E). 

The Northern Trust Open has not had a first-time winner since Len Mattiace in 2002. 

In the last three weeks on TOUR, victors came back from deficits of seven (Brandt Snedeker/Farmers Insurance Open), eight (Kyle Stanley/Waste Management Phoenix Open) and six (Phil Mickelson/AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am). 

American players have won the first six events of the 2012 PGA TOUR season. The last time there was such a streak to start the season was 2001 when U.S. players won the first eight events of the year before Robert Allenby won the Northern Trust Open. 

There are two amateurs in the field this week. Patrick Cantlay, a sophomore at UCLA and the No. 1 ranked amateur in the world, shot a 7-over 78 in the first round. Jordan Spieth, a freshman at the University of Texas, is the No. 2-ranked collegiate player in the United States and shot a 5-over 76. 

Tim Clark (+4 through 16 holes) is making his first start on TOUR since he withdrew from THE PLAYERS Championship last May after a first-round 74 due to a right elbow injury. 

Defending Champion Aaron Baddeley is one of nine past champions representing 11 titles in the field:               

Aaron Baddeley (2011) 73 (+2) 

Phil Mickelson (2008, 2009) 66 (-5)

Charles Howell III (2007)  74 (+3)

Rory Sabbatini (2006) -2 thru 17

Adam Scott (2005) 73 (+2)

Robert Allenby (2001)  74 (+3)

Ernie Els (1999)   73 (+2)

Billy Mayfair (1998)  72 (+1)

Fred Couples (1990, 1992)  70 (-1) 

Bogey-free rounds:

R1 – None

Weather

Sunny and breezy with temperatures reaching 69 degrees. Winds NNW 10-20 mph, gusting to 30-35 mph. 

PARTIAL First-Round Leaderboard

Phil Mickelson  66 (-5)

J.B. Holmes  67 (-4)

Hunter Mahan 67 (-4)

Jonathan Byrd 68 (-3)

Carl Pettersson 68 (-3)  

Chevron’s EAGLES FOR EDUCATION initiative will donate $2,500 for every eagle scored during the Northern Trust Open. Each eagle will support 350 students through the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce and The First Tee. Chevron’s goal is to raise $100,000 over the course of the week. In addition to the funding provided, Chevron is also hosting more than 500 Los Angeles area students to the “STEM Zone” - a customized hospitality area dedicated to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. Through the first round, three eagles were recorded (Vijay Singh, Bill Haas and Blake Adams), which earns a donation of $7,500 to the EAGLES FOR EDUCATION initiative.

Source: PGA Tour Media Release, powered by the Golfblogger Network