The change to a "pure arc" came "out of desperation" and felt strange, but he finished the round with only 29 putts.

"I felt like I had a 'flippy' wrist through the impact area, and all of a sudden the ball started rolling pretty true," said Watson, who didn't have a "5" on his card. "The left-to-right putts were on line and that's something I've had a lot of trouble doing. As a result, a lot of putts went in the hole."

There is no shortage of seniors close behind. When this group was last seen here a year ago, 35 of 38 golfers broke par in the final round. Yesterday, 29 of 37 were under par in tougher conditions.

All the birdies seemed to blur together, even with gusty 20-mph winds blowing early. Those all but died for Watson's back nine, making some of the earlier scores nearly as impressive as his.

Wayne Levi, 1982 Hawaiian Open champion, broke from a mob at 5-under with birdie on the 17th to grab second at 6-under. That was four shots off the 62 he warmed up with in Thursday's Pro-Am.

Levi, 52, called it a carryover from last year when he won late and closed fast. Half his six birdies came on par-5's. The other half were more compelling, coming on par-3's. On the first two he was hitting 3-irons into the wind.

It was no coincidence that Levi and Watson both birdied the par-3 fifth hole. It was the most difficult on the course yesterday, playing a half-shot over par as golfers had a tough time gauging gusts. But once golfers got to Hualalai's greens, it did not take them long to move off.

"You've got to putt well here," Levi said. "The greens are so nice, you can just read 'em. It gets a little tricky out here sometimes with grain, but other than that they are very nice. You can make some putts."

Tied for third at 5-under are a few of the usual suspects — Dana Quigley, John Jacobs and Craig Stadler — along with Morris Hatalsky, the tour's best putter last year, and Vicente Fernandez, who might have been the most surprised man on the Big Island.

He tore a tendon in his left ring finger Nov. 11 — "at 6:30 a.m." — at home in Argentina and took the next two months off. "The best two months of my life," Fernandez, 58, joked yesterday.

It was the longest time he has had off in 25 years. He played his first nine holes a week ago in Puerto Rico. By the time he teed off yesterday, Fernandez was fresh and "really pumped up."

"I was actually nervous today," he said. "The last time I was nervous was a long time ago. I was very ready."

Clearly he was not alone.

Quigley, extending his exhausting record to 263 straight tournaments this week, is wearing Hualalai out. He shot in the 60's for the ninth consecutive time here. He won the MasterCard in 2003, and lost out to Fuzzy Zoeller — tied for eighth — by a shot last year.

Jacobs is also at home at Hualalai. He won here in 1999 and has three Top-10 finishes since.

Stadler is coming off last year's Champions trifecta, when he won the Jack Nicklaus (Player of the Year), Arnold Palmer (money leader) and Byron Nelson (low scoring average) awards.

But no one was as wondrous as Watson yesterday. He played only a dozen tournaments last year while suffering from hip and shoulder problems. He put off late-season surgery and opted for Advil and six weeks of intense workouts.

And then he changed his putting, to a style similar to that of Arnold Palmer and 2004 Rookie of the Year Mark McNulty.

Yesterday was Watson's best round since 2003. He missed hitting just one green in regulation. Once there, he two-putted for birdie twice on par-5's, hit it so close he dropped five more birdie putts from inside 18 feet and called his 45-footer on the windy fifth the key to the round.

NOTES

Next up: The field was released for next week's Turtle Bay Championship on O'ahu's North Shore. Hale Irwin will attempt to win the event for a fourth consecutive time. The first came on Maui and the last two at Turtle Bay, where the tournament was played in the fall until it moved to January this year. The field also includes Hawai'i's Dave Eichelberger and Dan Nishimoto, along with Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson. Former Maui resident Dick McClean received the sponsor's exemption. Two more players will qualify Monday. Steve Veriato, who grew up on the Big Island, is No. 11 on the alternate list.