First round: Trio tied at the top in Timonium after 65s
TIMONIUM, Md. (AP) -- Phil Blackmar, Bruce Fleisher and Des Smyth shot 5-under 65s on Thursday to share the first-round lead in the Senior Players Championship, the fifth and final Champions Tour major of the year.
Blackmar holed out from the fairway for eagle to help offset four bogeys, Fleisher made four straight birdies early in his round, and Smyth had a bogey-free day to top the leaderboard. All three are winless this year.
"I really didn't anticipate this at all," said Fleisher, winless since 2004.
Fred Funk, Scott Hoch, Bernhard Langer and Eduardo Romero opened with 66s and 19 players were within three strokes of the lead after an ideal day for scoring at the East Course at Baltimore Country Club.
Blackmar, a Champions Tour rookie who took seven years off from competitive golf, provided the highlight of the day with his approach shot on the 389-yard, par-4 10th hole. His shot with a pitching wedge from 106 yards landed about 10 feet short of the cup and skipped in for an eagle.
Combined with birdies on the ninth and 11th holes, he played that three-hole stretch in the middle of his round in 4 under.
"I had no idea that it would take so long to get back competitively to anywhere near where I was before," he said, citing his final hole as evidence of improvement.
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| Thursday's Best |
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The par-5, 583-yard fourth was the easiest with a Thursday scoring average of 4.679.
The par-4, 427-yard first was toughest with a Thursday scoring average of 4.321.
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Phil Blackmar, one of the first-round leaders, sank an eagle from 106 yards on the par-4, 389-yard 10th hole. He used a pitching wedge to knock the ball onto the green, where it took one hop and landed in the hole
Three players are tied for the lead after shooting 65 on Thursday. Phil Blackmar, Bruce Fleisher and Des Smyth are all 5-under par. That's one stroke above the course record of 64, shot by Tom McKnight last year.| QUOTE OF THE DAY | ||
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FLEISHER CREDITS ARPwave FOR RECENT SUCCESS
By Lauren Deason, PGATOUR.COM Editorial Coordinator
TIMONIUM, Md. -- Bruce Fleisher plopped down in the interviewee's chair in the Media Center at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship and picked up the latest issue of Golfweek that was lying on a table in front of him.
The cover featured young Camilo Villegas in his famous Spider-Man crouch, reading a putt in a flexible, push up-like position.
Fleisher, who turns 60 next week, could only chuckle.
"When you learn to do that move, you've arrived," he said. "It's my next goal, in my next life."
The 59-year-old Fleisher won the U.S. Amateur in 1968, which was 40 years ago and 14 years before Villegas was even born.
"I kind of cringe (when I hear people mention the U.S. Amateur). That was 40 years ago this year. Those were the wonder years. That was when golf was so different, so much more fun," Fleisher said.
After a quarter of a century on the PGA TOUR, where he earned one victory, Fleisher joined the Champions Tour in 1999 and won 18 times over the span of six years. His last victory, though, came at the Bruno's Memorial Classic in 2004.
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LUCK OF THE IRISH
Things have finally started to settle down in the Smyth household. After Des Smyth's 24-year-old son Greg pocketed $15 million by winning the lottery in Ireland, chaos ensued.
"We're really just trying to settle things down. He got a lot of press, a lot of publicity and he's shy and he doesn't like it. He wants to get back to normality," Smyth said. "He's a good kid and he's doing all the right things."
Smyth found out at the JELD-WEN Tradition in mid-August and pulled out of the next week's Champions Tour event so he could be there to support his son. But both father and son returned to the U.S. just a few weeks later, where Greg fulfilled an earlier promise to his dad and served as his caddie at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn.
Now that Greg, who's studying at a horticultural college, has plenty of money, he doesn't need that caddie's check but Des hasn't ruled out the possibility that they'll re-team in the future.
"He's always welcome to do it but he's busy worrying about financial matters," Smyth said. "He's seen the way the world has gone in the last six weeks and wondering where you should have money these days. Even the banks are risky."
Des, on the other hand, doesn't have much to worry about on Thursday. He tied his low round of the year with a 65 in the first round and is tied for the lead. If he were to win, he'd pick up a $390,000 winner's payout.
Smyth recently watched his swing on video -- something he hates doing -- and realized why he hadn't been playing well in 2008.
"It looks far worse than it feels. My swing doesn't feel that bad but it looks awful. I've been a feel player all my life and never looked at myself on video but clearly now I know I have to make a change," he said.
"...I'm trying to improve my back swing and flatten my shoulder turns. I've been working on that the last couple of weeks and started to play much better."
| What the leaders said... | ||||||||||||||||
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GETTING OUT OF A 'FUNK'
While practicing in Baltimore on Monday, Fred Funk figured it out. He knew exactly what was wrong with his swing, why it had been letting him down for the past few weeks. But alas, on Tuesday, that swing change no longer worked. So he tried another one, which worked for only about a day as well.
By Wednesday afternoon, a frustrated Funk took a golf cart and stole a few precious hours on the secluded West course -- not the Five Farms (East) course, which is the host of this week's event -- at Baltimore Country Club. He FINALLY found the root of his problem and turned to another swing thought that really worked this time.
Or so he thought. Thursday morning, those shots that had been flying perfectly on the range suddenly turned into weak pulled shots in the actual competition.
| 3 | Number of players who hit every fairway on Thursday. They were Andy Bean, John Morse and Ron Streck. |
| 4 | Number of bogey-free rounds on Day 1. Des Smyth, Bernhard Langer, Jim Thorpe and Fred Funk did not have any bogeys. |
| 12 | How many countries were represented at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. |
"I had to switch back to a different swing thought and, from really the 10th hole on, I started hitting the ball really solid," said Funk, who won the most recent major on the Champions Tour but has struggled with his ball-striking since. "The driver is not near as good as I want it to be but the irons are really good and I putted really efficiently.
"It's frustrating, every day I'm trying to put a Band-Aid on it. Now it's turned into a tourniquet on my swing or maybe even a cast. I don't know what I have to do. I get something that works with one part of my game and then it doesn't work for the iron game. Or I get it working for the iron game and it doesn't work for the driver."
Still, Funk, who's never been a long hitter but has relied on his consistency throughout his career, is extremely happy with his first-round 66 at the season's final major.
"It feels a lot better to hit the ball like crap and have a decent round then hit the ball really good all day long and come up with nothing," he said.
RACING FOR A CURE
While their husbands were grinding away on the range, getting in last minute practice before the season's final major, the Champions Tour wives were also working hard on Wednesday.
Several wives took the time to support the local Baltimore community by assembling more than 2,500 Breast Cancer Survivor bags that will be distributed at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, a 5K run/fitness walk to be held in Baltimore on Sunday, October 19, 2008.
The Komen Race for the Cure Series raises significant funds and awareness for the fight against breast cancer, celebrates breast cancer survivorship, and honors those who have lost their battle with the disease.
"We have all been affected by breast cancer in one way or another. It is nice that we as a group were able to give our time and energy to this wonderful cause," said Sally Hoch, wife of Champions Tour player Scott Hoch and one of the wives who attended the event.
"Constellation Energy is proud to be the title sponsor for the Senior Players Championship because of the many ways this wonderful event supports the greater Baltimore community," said Vicki Wallace, wife of Constellation Energy Vice Chairman Michael Wallace. "Constellation Energy is equally proud to have joined with the Champions Tour and the players' wives in this meaningful activity."
"Partnering with Constellation Energy and the wives of Champions Tour players is a way for Komen Maryland to create a greater awareness of the many programs we fund in our local communities and supporting our cause of ending breast cancer forever. We are very grateful Constellation Energy selected Komen Maryland as a beneficiary from a crowded field of deserving non profits. As a result of the support we receive from the community, we are able to generously serve those with breast cancer today and provide greater hope, health and opportunities for those who will be diagnosed in the future," said Robin Prothro, BSN, MPH, Susan G. Komen Executive Director.
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