Texas Children's Houston Open

Memorial Park Golf Course



The Loop

If it works for him...

April 23, 2009

Charles Warren finished the first round of the Zurich Classic a shot behind Charlie Wi's leading 66. New Orleans is just Warren's sixth appearance of the year because of his limited status, having fallen outside the top 125 last season. His five-under par 67 had an impressive degree of difficulty, however, since he was playing with something other than Ping irons for the first time in 20 years.

Having signed a driver deal with TaylorMade at the beginning of 09, Warren had a set of irons sitting around the house, serving as little more than a novelty for his two and a half year old son, Charles IV. "My son was banging balls around the house with them for two weeks," says Warren. "I grabbed one from him because he was hitting the wall. I said, these are pretty good. Got them reshafted and played with them on Monday and Tuesday." The 4-iron through the 7-iron, literally, went in the bag on Thursday.

It wasn't exactly a seamless transition. "It is hard. (But) with me, when I switch something like that I usually play well," said Warren. "I don't know if it's my expectations are lower but, it's something fresh. It's good. I controlled them pretty well today and (am) looking forward to what they might do for me."

-- Jim Moriarty