It Is Hardly Lonely at Top

Jose Maria Canizares went first and took the traditional route. Bruce Fleisher and Dave Stockton followed. Dana Quigley and Bob Gilder strayed from the beaten path.

They all ended up in the same place: the top of a tightly-bunched leaderboard at the Toshiba Senior Classic after each shot six-under-par 65 in the opening round Friday at Newport Beach Country Club.

Never have so many players been tied for the first-round lead of this Senior PGA Tour event, and the score of 65 ties the record for lowest opening round, set by Bob Murphy, J.C. Snead and David Graham in 1997.

Terry Mauney, Jim Colbert and Hale Irwin are two shots back after shooting 67, and defending champion Allen Doyle and Lee Trevino lead a herd of 10 players who are three back.

Forty-two players are within five shots of the lead.

“It’s going to be tough with the leaderboard packed like that,” said Gilder, a tour rookie who won in his last start two weeks ago at Tampa, Fla. “If you make a bogey, it will knock you down pretty far. That wears on you a little bit when everybody is right there.”

Canizares got there first. The Spaniard teed off in the first group of the day, hit 14 greens in regulation and took advantage of smooth greens that would get bumpier with each group that tread on them.

Fleisher, the 1999 senior tour player of the year, and Stockton, looking for his first tour victory since 1997, also pieced together routine 65s--the kind where they made all of their 10- to 12-foot putts.

Quigley and Gilder had no business shooting 65.

Quigley, the iron man of the senior tour who is playing his 121st consecutive tournament without a week off, hit only eight greens in regulation, yet putted only 20 times and somehow did not make a bogey.

“It was a very peculiar round for me,” Quigley said. “Imagine shooting 65 and hitting eight greens. It’s crazy.”

Gilder made the turn at even par but had six birdies on the final eight holes, including four in a row on Nos. 13-16.

“I just wasn’t focusing very well on the front nine,” Gilder said. “I was just stepping up and hitting it. When I made the turn even par I wasn’t looking very good so I figured I’d better start taking a little more dead aim. Still, I certainly didn’t expect to make six birdies in nine holes.”

A crowded leaderboard is hardly unusual after the first round of this tournament. In 1997, three players shared the lead. In ’98 and ‘99, there were four.

The recent rains have softened the course, making even the tightly tucked pins easy targets and allowing for more low scores. Moreover, lift, clean and place rules were in effect for fairway lies.

“If the greens were a little firmer, you wouldn’t have this many low scores,” Gilder said. “Because they are softer, you aren’t afraid to hit it in there.”

The wet conditions have also left course workers unable to mow the rough, which players say is the toughest it has ever been at Newport Beach Country Club. It’s no surprise, then, that the leaders are also among the leaders in fairways hit.

“The key was keep it in play and hit the greens,” said Stockton. “Those who shot well had to be chipping well because there was no way you were going to hit all of the greens today.”

Quigley knows all about that. He saved par after missing greens by chipping to within a foot four times. He also saved par out of green-side bunkers twice.

Of the eight times he hit greens in regulation, he made five birdies.

“I had 10 legitimate chances to make bogey out there, but I saved every one,” Quigley said. “I should have been sweating like heck trying to get the ball on the green, but it was actually kind of fun.”

He got a taste of things to come when he holed out four chips during practice before his round.

“I was having so much fun chipping that it took the strain off,” he said. “It’s much more satisfying than playing a real good round of golf and then missing some putts and saying I left a few shots out there. I didn’t leave anything out there.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Front-runners

At Newport Beach CC--Par 71

Dave Stockton: 33-32--65 -6

Bob Gilder: 35-30--65 -6

Jose Maria Canizares: 32-33--65 -6

Bruce Fleisher: 32-33--65 -6

Dana Quigley: 33-32--65 -6

Jim Colbert: 34-33--67 -4

Hale Irwin: 35-32--67 -4

Terry Mauney: 34-33--67 -4

* COMPLETE SCORES, D12