Regions Charity Classic: First-Round Notebook
By Phil Stambaugh, PGA TOUR Staff
HOOVER, Ala. -- Andy Bean's 7-under 65 Friday was his best round on the Champions Tour since last fall, when he shot the same score on Saturday at the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach.
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• For the third time in the last four years, the first-round leader/co-leaders at the Regions Charity Classic have shot 65. Last year, Scott Hoch led with a 65 and eventually finished fifth in the event. In 2005, Dana Quigley shot 7-under on Friday at Greystone and also placed fifth in the tournament.
• Mike Goodes from Reidsville, N.C, matched his career-low round on the Champions Tour Friday when he shot 7-under 65. Goodes was on the Friday leaderboard earlier this year at the Toshiba Classic near Newport Beach, Callif., after shooting 65 in the opening round. He eventually finished tied for 21st, his best overall effort on the circuit.
• Goodes open qualified for this week's Regions Charity Classic with 3-under 69. Last year, he made 10 appearances on the Champions Tour, seven through open qualifying, and his best finish was a tie for 33rd at the Senior PGA Championship.
• First-round leaders/co-leaders have won three of the first 11 events on the Champions Tour this year. In the previous 16 Regions Charity Classics, first-round leaders/co-leaders have gone on to win the tournament only three times. John Bland shared the opening-round lead with Bruce Summerhays in 1996 and eventually won in a playoff. Hale Irwin shared the first-round lead with Jose Maria-Canizares in 2001 and eventually won. In 2004, Bruce Fleisher was the only wire-to-wire winner in event history.
• Bob Charles shot 4-under 68 Friday and bettered his age by four strokes, the eighth time he's done that on the Champions Tour. Before Friday, the 72-year-old Charles last bettered his age on the circuit at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am when he shot 71 in the second round.
• Brad Bryant, seeking to win the Regions Charity Classic for a third straight time, shot even-par 72 Friday (tied for 34th). His round Friday ended a streak of eight consecutive sub-par scores at this event. There have been seven times on the Champions Tour when a player has won the same event three times, including Hale Irwin who won the EMC Kaanapali Classic/Turtle Bay Championship five times in a row.
• Bob Gilder made his 105th consecutive start on the Champions Tour Friday and carded a 1-under 71.
• Hale Irwin, the Champions Tour's all-time wins leader with 45 career victories, opened with a 2-under 70 Friday. It marked the first time he's started with a round under par on the Champions Tour since posting a 3-under 69 on Friday at the Allianz Championship in Boca Raton this past February. Irwin eventually tied for 18th in that tournament, his best finish to date in 2008.
• Jim Dent (79) and Gibby Gilbert (80) played in their 17th consecutive Regions Charity Classic, the only two professionals to tee it up in every Champions Tour tournament in Birmingham.
• Ian Woosnam's 3-under 69 Friday was his first sub-70 score on the Champions Tour. Tomorrow, Woosnam will be grouped with two other rookies on the Champions Tour (Jeff Sluman, Joey Sindelar) and the threesome will go off #1 tee at 11:00 a.m. CT.
• PGA TOUR veteran Dave Rummells shot 1-under 71 in his Champions Tour debut Friday.
• With lift, clean and place rules in effect, Friday's field scoring average of 72.462 compared to 72.821 on Friday last year. In 2006, the field stroke average on Friday at Ross Bridge was 72.291. On Friday, there were 33 scores below par compared to just 21 on Friday last year.
• The hardest hole in Round 1 was the par-4 first (4.321/+.321). No. 17 played as the second most difficult (4.282/+.282). The par-5 third hole played as the easiest (4.692/-.308) and yielded 28 birdies.
• Local favorite Jerry Pate withdrew before the start of the round and was replaced in the field by Rocky Thompson. Pate withdrew due to a lower back injury.
• This and That: Scott Simpson hit all 14 fairways today. ... Wayne Levi, Bernhard Langer and John Ross missed only one green in regulation. ... Andy Bean and Mike Goodes, the co-leaders in the event, along with Bob Charles, all had the fewest putts on Friday with 26. ... John Harris averaged 297 yards off the tee and Tom McKnight had the longest drive of the day, 349 yards at the par-5 13th hole.
Second-round play will start at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday with players going off both the No. 1 and No. 10 tees.
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