5 tied for first-round lead at Toshiba Senior Classic

Richard Dunn

In typical Toshiba Senior Classic style, the leaderboard Friday was

jammed after the first round of the Senior PGA Tour stop at Newport Beach

Country Club.

Five players, led by former Senior Tour Players of the Year Dave

Stockton and Bruce Fleisher, shot 6-under-par 65 to tie for the lead in

some of the toughest golf course conditions on the senior tour.

The tournament will continue with second-round action today, beginning

at 8 a.m., then final-round play Sunday.

“It was real difficult to hit long irons out of these conditions,”

said Stockton, the fourth 65 shooter to enter the clubhouse, preceding

Bob Gilder and following Jose Maria Canizares, Bruce Fleisher and Dana

Quigley.

“This is as severe a rough as we’re going to see all year,” Stockton

added, referring to the extremely thick rough, which didn’t get a chance

to be mowed this week because of steady rain.

Stockton, a two-time PGA Championship winner who has praised the golf

course at Newport Beach Country Club in the past, said the 6,584-yard

layout is “in great condition” considering the large amount of rain it

absorbed earlier in the week.

“I think everybody enjoys coming here,” Stockton said. “It’s a great

golf course for the players and, as far as the shopping for our wives, I

don’t think anybody’s going to miss this tournament.”

Stockton made seven birdies on his way to shooting 65, his lowest

round ever in six years at Newport Beach. Stockton carded a 64 in the

final round in 1995, when the event was played at Mesa Verde Country Club

and he finished tied for second.

Canizares, a former European tour standout from Spain, was the first

player to tee off in the tournament and arrived atop the leaderboard

before anybody had lunch.

“I putted better than normal,” said Canizares, who made seven birdies

and one bogey. “The golf course is still wet, but the greens are in

perfect condition. They’re not so fast, and the ball rolls good. It’s not

easy putting on these greens, because the ball sometimes moves.”

Like Stockton, Canizares made seven birdies and one bogey, while

Gilder finished strong, Fleisher started hot, and Quigley had the

craziest round of all.

Quigley was wild off the tee and from the fairways, but managed to

sink long putts from the fringe.

“I’d rather have a day like this than play well and miss a lot of

putts,” said Quigley, who made six birdies, no bogeys and carded six

par-saving shots.

“This was a very surprising round for me. I think I had 22 putts

[actually 20]. But I did not hit the ball well at all,” he said. “Every

green I missed by 3 inches to a foot, so it doesn’t count as a putt [in

the tour statistics].

“It was a lot of fun out there today. You get a lot of positive boosts

when you make par and you think you’re going to make bogey,” he said.

Quigley did make bogies on holes 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 13.

With five players deadlocked at the top, it ties a Toshiba Senior

Classic first-round record.

Three others, Terry Mauney, Jim Colbert and Hale Irwin, are two

strokes off the pace, while several are tied at 3-under 68, including

legendary golfer Lee Trevino and 1995 Toshiba Classic champion George

Archer. Colbert (1996) and Irwin (1998) are also past Toshiba winners.

At least two players have been tied for the lead after the first round

in every Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport Beach Country Club since 1996,

when the event was moved from Mesa Verde.

Fleisher, the senior tour’s Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year

in 1999, birdied the first three holes, then birdied 10, 12 and 15 on the back nine for his 65 and share of the lead.

Gilder’s round was the opposite of Fleisher’s, as he made six birdies

on the back nine, including birdies on 13, 14, 15, 16 and 18.