Three tied for MasterCard lead
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
KA'UPULEHU, Hawai'i — After yesterday's first round of the MasterCard Championship, Hale Irwin, who seems to win every week, shares the lead with Dana Quigley, who plays every week, and Hilo's Steve Veriato, who needs a victory here to do either.
There was something for everyone on opening day of the newly named Champions Tour.
Hualalai Golf Club, even with gusty Kona winds, gave up lots of red numbers to the 36 players invited here. The difference between first, which is 6-under-par 66, and last is just 10 shots. Even the players who received sponsor's exemptions came up big.
To be sure, the exemptions were given to extraordinary players. Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer have won 255 tour events between them. Apparently, they're not done yet.
Nicklaus, who designed Hualalai, and Trevino, who won last week's ConAgra Skins Game, are only two shots back. Player had a 70 and Palmer shot his age — 73 — with four birdies.
The legends are chasing Veriato, who got into this tournament with a win in 2001. Last year he finished 61st on the money list, winning $281,000 but not finishing high enough to keep his exempt status. A win here would change that.
Yesterday, with a gang of friends and family following and "the menehunes" — Veriato's words — helping him on the fourth hole, he got a great start.
After three-putting to bogey No. 3, Veriato chipped in for eagle on No. 4 for the second straight day. He followed that up with five more birdies. Veriato three-putted the 10th hole for par and missed a 3 1/2-footer for birdie or he would have had Irwin and Quigley looking up at him.
Irwin's comfort zone is apparently every golf course on this planet, but particularly those in paradise. He won this tournament in 1997, the year it moved to the Big Island, and six of his 56 tour victories have come in Hawai'i — not counting the three senior skins games he's won here.
Irwin had yesterday's only bogey-free round despite hitting most of his approach shots far from the hole. He is playing with a bag full of new clubs — aside from his putter — and a new ball. Apparently none of that matters when you've won $23 million playing golf.
Irwin nearly holed the first approach shot of his 2003 season and birdied all four par-5s while "calibrating myself."
"It takes rounds like today to do that," Irwin said. "It takes playing in the wind and competition. All of that was pretty well met today. ... None of it (new equipment) is bad. In fact, it's turning out to be very, very good. But to play consistently you've got to be calibrated. I'm not quite calibrated."
That's a daunting thought. So is the outrageous record Quigley extended while sinking a series of 15- to 20-foot birdie putts. He has now made a record 202 consecutive starts — "I play everyday of my life," he said. "More than once every day."
In all those tournaments he claims he has never seen a golf course he likes more than Hualalai.
"I've always played well here," Quigley says. "I love the golf course. It's my favorite place on tour to play. It's kind of tough when you open up the season and it's all downhill from here. But this is by far my favorite place to play in the world. I'm really psyched up when I get here. Everything is so beautiful and perfect out there. For me it's hard not to play well."
Jay Sigel, who shot 65 along with 2001 MasterCard champion Larry Nelson, also brought up Hualalai's pristine conditions. Despite the winds that cut across nearly every fairway, the average score was nearly 2-under-par yesterday. Predictably, the par-5 holes were the easiest on the course.
"The course didn't play that easy and scores are terrific," Sigel said. "I think that speaks to the condition of the golf course, which is perfect. It couldn't be any better."
SHORT PUTTS: Graham Marsh withdrew Wednesday for personal reasons. That left 36 golfers in the field. ... Tom Watson made the turn at 3-over yesterday, then eagled the 10th and played the back nine in 31. ... Defending champion Tom Kite is three shots back. ... Gil Morgan played his final 17 rounds last year under par. That streak ended when he shot 74 yesterday. ...ÊA new rule this year forces players to walk or ride all 18 holes each day and not switch between the two. Yesterday, only Jim Thorpe, John Jacobs, Tom Jenkins and Sammy Rachels rode, mostly due to health reasons. ... The Champions Tour's first full-field event is the Royal Caribbean Golf Classic next weekend in Florida. ... The Turtle Bay Championship is Oct. 10-12 at the Palmer Course on the North Shore. The SBC Championship follows Turtle Bay, then the season ends with the Champions Tour Championship. ... The field size this year will expand from 78 to 81 with the addition of the PGA Tour Career Victory Category. ... Of the 695 official stroke-play tournaments the Champions Tour has held since its debut Jan. 20, 1980, 500 have been decided by two strokes or fewer. ... The tour announced last Friday that it has signed an agreement with The Golf Channel for it to be its exclusive cable carrier from 2004-2008. ... The charities this week are Kona Rotary Club-Youth Scholarship Foundation and Kealakehe High School.
