WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS - Alan Cooke said there weren't any nerves on the first tee box on Thursday, but then again, he never really felt comfortable, either.
Cooke, a former WVU and Parkersburg High School golfer, is competing in the Greenbrier Classic by virtue of a win in the 2016 West Virginia Amateur. He struggled a bit on Thursday with a 9-over-par 79, putting him in a tie for 153rd place, but he was in good spirits after his round.
"It was just really hard to get comfortable. It was completely different than anything I've ever experienced," Cooke explained. "It's just seeing the jumbotrons and the people and the crowd and knowing you're playing a PGA Tour event. It was just a really hard feeling. Uncomfortable is the only way I can put it. I asked [playing partner] Mark [Anderson] in the van ride how long it took him to get comfortable out here and he was like, 'It took me four or five tournaments before I could play my game.' I'm standing over the ball not knowing what to think, thinking 'God, I just hope I hit it,' which is not what you want to be thinking."
Barring something miraculous on Friday, Cooke will miss the cut, though that may take some of the pressure off. Cooke certainly wasn't placing too much on his round and had simple plans for the rest of his Thursday.
"I'm just going to relax for a bit and drink a beer, I think," Cooke said with a laugh. "I wasn't expecting much."
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While Danny Lee was claiming the 2015 Greenbrier Classic, Robert Streb was becoming sort of a cult hero not only in White Sulphur Springs but also on the PGA Tour.
Streb was part of the four-way playoff two years ago alongside Lee, David Hearn and Kevin Kisner, and he got there a little shorthanded after breaking his putter on the ninth hole in the final round.
That forced Streb to use a 56-degree wedge to putt. Despite the equipment disadvantage, he caught fire, pouring in five birdies against one bogey to post a back-nine 32 and put himself in the playoff.
"I heard about it for a long time," Streb said after carding a 5-under 65 Thursday, good for a share of ninth place. "This week has been pretty quiet, but it was kind of a freak deal. I don't think I want to try it again."
No matter what he's got in the bag, Streb has become quite comfortable on the Old White TPC, going 3 for 3 in terms of cuts made, and he's well on his way to a fourth. And while one of the major story lines coming into the week was the changes made to the course, Streb said from what he saw, they will only make the track more vulnerable.
"The changes probably made it a little easier - there's not as many runoffs, greens aren't quite as slopey, some of the bunkers are smaller but they made them flat with big lips, so if you hit the front it can be tough," Streb said. "But with all the rain, you'll probably see some low scores."
Streb was one of the day's best putters Thursday, needing just 27 putts. He made three putts of 13 feet or longer, including a 23-footer on No. 6.
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With a healthy amount of rain the previous three days, PGA Tour officials allowed players to lift, clean and replace balls in the fairway. With that decision made in the morning, that was the law of the grounds for the rest of the day, no matter how well the course dried out.
The Tour announced the decision was made in part because of possible rain predicted in the afternoon. That didn't materialize, as the afternoon was partly sunny.
David Lingmerth, for one, wasn't surprised by the decision.
"We did it [Wednesday] in the pro-am," he said. "Had some mudballs. It's not far off from being able to play it down the way we're intended to, really."
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The birdies outnumbered the bogeys 496-423 Thursday, as the field averaged 69.923 strokes. The soft conditions helped, but so did a shorter distance - the holes played 240 yards shorter than the scorecard yardage.
The par-5 17th hole, playing 20 yards shorter than the usual 616, was the easiest hole with birdies outnumbering pars 76-67, and just 10 bogeys and a double bogey.
The hardest hole was the par-3 eighth, playing at 3.232 strokes. The 16th hole, where the pros are no longer forced to carry drives over Swan Lake, went from being the second-hardest in 2015 to 14th Thursday.
As good as the scoring conditions were, the course average was a full stroke higher than the first round in 2015, which averaged 68.865.