Kite fights off winds, leads by 5 at MasterCard
By Bill Kwon
Special to The Advertiser
KA'UPULEHU, Hawai'i — The unpredictable Kona Coast winds proved too much even for Tom Kite yesterday.
Associated Press
With tradewinds returning with gusto by early afternoon — 45 mph at their peak — Kite shot the back nine in 2-over-par to finish with a 69 yesterday yet still increased his lead to five strokes going into today's final round of the $1.5 million MasterCard Championship at the Hualalai Golf Club.
Tom Kite birdied five of his first seven holes before the strong kona winds picked up.
It was that kind of a blustery day for the 33-player field in the Senior PGA Tour's season opener.
Still, thanks to a tournament-record 63 Friday, Kite's at 132 and the five-shot margin tied the tournament record for the largest lead after 36 holes set by Bruce Crampton when he won in 1991.
"Obviously, the golf course really played difficult today," said Kite, who birdied five of his first seven holes before the wind really picked up.
"From that point on, it was an absolute battle," added Kite. "Obviously disappointing to shoot 2-over on the back nine because I played as well on the back nine as I did on the front nine today."
Once the trades got going, par was an awfully good score, judging by the challengers getting blown off the leaderboard. Jim Colbert, Bruce Fleisher, Lanny and Bobby Wadkins were all at 7-under before losing strokes to par. Both Wadkins brothers are tied for fifth place at 138.
"Everybody's chasing Tom," said Walter Hall, who's at 137 along with 2001 rookie-of-the-year Bob Gilder and John Jacobs, whose 5-under 67 was the low round of the windblown day.
"It's not easy out there. If you're downwind putting, you're a dead duck," said Jacobs, who won here in 1999.
"It's really hard to keep your balance. Every shot I mishit I was moving when I hit it," added Larry Nelson, who started the day three back of Kite while paired with him and now is seven back in a five-way tie at 137 with Fleisher, Colbert, Jim Thorpe and Dana Quigley.
Still, Jacobs feels that it'll take similar winds like yesterday's to try and catch the high-flying Kite.
"I'll love it. We need the wind to get a chance," Jacobs said.
"I'm sure it's going to blow some, if not a lot. With this wind, things can happen," Kite said.
"I don't mind the wind. A reasonable 15-20 mph wind would be fine and dandy. I'm sure the guys — J.J. (Jacobs), Gilder and Walter, Lanny and Bobby — want the wind to blow 100 miles an hour. They need to pick up a little ground and they'll need a little help from me. Of course, I'm going to do everything I can, not to help them. I'm going to make sure they don't have an opportunity."
Still, it's a five-shot lead, no matter what the conditions will be today, and Kite feels confident about the lead and his game.
"It's a nice lead. I've had some good leads. They're always welcomed, I can assure you. Any lead, being one shot, tied for the lead or four, five, six, seven. You love having it because everybody else has to play that much better," Kite said.
"I have to play well, but I am playing well. I'm hitting the ball very solidly and I'm putting well. I should have a good day tomorrow."
Tournaments aren't won on a Friday, as Kite said the day before. But leading by five after yesterday is sure looking good toward winning that $258,000 first-place prize.
SHORT PUTTS: In contrast to the opening round when the par-5 fourth hole played the easiest, it ranked 17th with the par-5 seventh being the easiest in the second round with a 4.424 scoring average. Tom Watson's triple-bogey made the par-3 fifth the most difficult with an average score of 3.333. It's also the most difficult overall after two rounds. No one has bogeyed the fourth hole in two days . . . Four of the players use women caddies. Sandra Jones is caddying for Tom Kite and Margo McMillan, who's expecting, for Larry Nelson. Allen Doyle's daughter Erin is working his bag, while Steve Veriato's wife, Karen, is in her sixth year as his caddy despite breaking her left arm in Thursday's pro-am when she fell off a golf cart . . . Dave Eichelberger, who's married to a Big Island kamaaina, the former Dorothy Mist, has been in the islands since late December, practicing at the Oahu Country Club — where they're members — and the Waialae Country Club . . . Brotherly Act: Lanny and Bobby Wadkins are paired together for today's final round for the first time since the 3M Championship last August . . . Before MasterCard became title sponsor of the event, the Senior PGA Tournament of Championships was called the Mercedes Championships. Mercedes sponsored the event for one year (1994) before taking over as title sponsor of the regular tour's TOC at Kapalua beginning from 1999.
