Golf Roundup : A 64 Gives Crenshaw 3-Shot World Series Lead

Ben Crenshaw opened up a three-stroke lead Thursday in the World Series of Golf at Akron, Ohio, with a six-under-par 64 while U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange struggled to 76 and may have to withdraw with a stiff neck.

“I’ll wait until morning to decide if I’m going to play,” Strange said. “Right now, I’d say probably not.”

Crenshaw holed three shots from the green, playing a 45-50 foot sand shot on the fourth hole that “ran in the hole like a putt.”

“I’m very fortunate, no question about it,” Crenshaw said. “Some really nice things happened to me today.”

On the 14th, he holed out a 30-yard wedge shot and on the 10th made a 35-foot putt from the fringe.

In all, the man recognized as one of golf’s greatest putters, used only 20 strokes on the greens of the long, difficult Firestone Country Club course.

Jodie Mudd birdied two of his last three holes for a three-under-par 67 that left him alone in second.

“A big, tough golf course,” he said. “With the wind blowing and the rough up a little, it was really tough.”

Defending champion Mike Reid birdied his first three holes and finished with a 68.

The only others to break par 70 were John Mahaffey, Billy Glasson and Ken Green, tied at 69.

Masters champion Nick Faldo and PGA title-holder Payne Stewart each shot 72. Mark Calcavecchia, making his first start since winning the British Open, was one stroke better at 71.

Australian Greg Norman, a winner last week, had a 73.

Crenshaw, who got into this exclusive event as the 1988 World Cup individual champion, one-putted for par on four of the last five holes on the front side and reached the turn in 33, two under.

He holed that long putt from the fringe on the 10th, then made another 25-footer on the 12th.

The 30-yard pitch-in on the 14th opened a string of three consecutive birdies. His only bogey of the day came on the 18th, where he drove into a fairway bunker, was short in two and--for the first time in the day’s play--failed to get it up and down.

“I didn’t want to end up like that, but you figure this course usually is going to get you somewhere,” he said.

Betsy King, the leading player on the LPGA tour this year, birdied the final hole with a 25-foot putt for a six-under-par 66 and a share of the first-round lead with defending champion Rosie Jones in the World Championship of Women’s Golf at Buford, Ga.

King, winner of five events this season, and Jones, winless in 1989, were the first twosome to complete play in this select international field of 16 golfers chasing a first prize of $83,500 from the $265,000 purse.

Neither King nor Jones had a bogey in the hot, humid trip around the hilly, 6,107-yard, par-72 PineIsle Resort course that hugs Lake Lanier.

King and Jones had a four-shot lead over six other golfers who shot 70s: Laura Davies of England, Marie-Laure de Lorenzi of France, Patty Sheehan, Patti Rizzo, Colleen Walker and Beth Daniel.

Mark Hayes polished off a record-tying eight-under-par 62 with an eagle-3 at the 17th hole and led by one stroke after the first round of the rain-plagued Hamilton County-Chattanooga tournament at Chattanooga, Tenn.

Hayes, a 17-year PGA Tour veteran seeking his first victory since 1976, survived a bogey at the par-5 second hole to take a one-stroke lead over Brad Faxon, who shot a 63 on the Valleybrook Golf and Country Club course.

Brad Fabel is two strokes off the lead after an opening-round 64.

Lightning and rain hampered play with 58 golfers left to complete their opening round this morning when PGA officials suspended play.