Tournament Players Championship : Irwin’s 30-Foot Pitch for Birdie Gives Him Lead

Hale Irwin, who has played infrequently and ineffectively since last June, pitched in for a birdie on the 18th hole and took a one-shot lead Thursday in the first round of the prestigious Tournament Players Championship.

“It’s time to start playing again. Time to go to work,” Irwin said after he’d pitched over a sprinkler head and into the cup to finish off a windblown, five-under-par 67 on the difficult Players Club at Sawgrass.

The veteran Irwin has played only a dozen tournaments since blowing a chance for a third U.S. Open title last summer. In those 12 events, he’s missed the cut five times and has not been in contention.

He blamed a variety of problems, including the death of his father and a nagging groin injury, for the lengthy lapse.

“I just couldn’t get myself geared back up again after the Open. But now, the swing is starting to come around again, the swing of old, the swing I can trust,” said Irwin, winner of 16 titles and more than $2.5 million.

He took the lead in this annual championship of golf’s touring pros with the 30-foot pitch from the fringe that found the cup on the 18th. “I wanted to putt it, but there was a sprinkler head in my line,” he said.

That lifted him one shot in front of Larry Rinker, West German Bernhard Langer, D.A. Weibring and Morris Hatalsky, tied at 68. Hatalsky included an eagle-2 in his effort, and Rinker ran off one streak of four consecutive birdies.

The group at 69 included Bobby Wadkins, Ronnie Black and rookie Mark Brooks.

While the course, the touring players’ home course, yielded dozens of subpar scores, it still managed to extract its toll from some of the game’s more glamorous names.

PGA champion Lee Trevino was four under par and among the leaders until he made a triple bogey on his 15th hole. He called a penalty shot on himself when his ball moved in the rough. He went over the green with his fourth, pitched back in 5 and two-putted for a 7 that sent him reeling to a 73.

Arnold Palmer, who put the word “charge” in golf’s lexicon, sparked some hope in his gallery when he made the turn two under par. But he couldn’t hold it, finishing double bogey-bogey for a 74.

Curtis Strange, winner of two of his last three starts, also was four under par late in his round but finished bogey-bogey for a 70.

Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus each shot a 71 in the warm, windy weather.