Nathan spent his first day on Hazeltine National today playing a practice round with Richard Green, Brendan Jones and New Zealander David Smail and was suitably impressed by the layout and the condition of the golf course.

"It's a very good golf course. It is very long at the moment, especially being a little soft this early in the week. It is expected to firm up over the next few days. The fairways are actually reasonably generous but the rough is quite thick. The back nine holes appear to be pretty tough."

"I played ok today, a little scrappy early but better over the closing nine.I'm trying to get my short game going a little better and will focus on that over the next couple of days."

Nathan has an early tee time on day one when he will play with Bo Van Pelt and Nick Dougherty. 

This will be the last of several events in a row for Nathan as he will take next week off before the start of the Fed Ex Cup events.

Nathan still leads the US$1 million along with Kevin Streelman and with no hole being used this week he will still lead at the completion of this week's event. The event involves 30 holes over the 2009 PGA Tour schedule and for a player to be eligible he must play 18 of those holes. Nathan has played 17. 

photo: Nathan with Richard Green, Brendan Jones and caddy PGA - Anthony Powter

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