By JOE FERRARO Stephens Media ADVERTISING KAUPULEHU-KONA — The Hualalai Golf Course, known for being among the easiest courses on the Champions Tour, showed some teeth Friday in the first round of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship. Tom Lehman birdied the
By JOE FERRARO
Stephens Media
KAUPULEHU-KONA — The Hualalai Golf Course, known for being among the easiest courses on the Champions Tour, showed some teeth Friday in the first round of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship.
Tom Lehman birdied the 18th hole, finishing with a 7-under 65 and a share of the first-round lead at the Champions Tour’s season-opening event.
Bruce Vaughan also carded a 65, walking into the clubhouse with 36 players still on the course. A handful of them shot low scores on the front nine before losing steam after the turn. Some of those players included Brad Faxon, Loren Roberts, Corey Pavin and Jay Haas, who all finished a stroke back with 66s.
Kona winds ranging from 10 to 20 mph made for higher scores, although Lehman said the wind didn’t affect his bogey-free round too much.
Prior to this year’s Mitsubishi Electric, a first-round leader hadn’t shot higher than a 64 since Dana Quigley, Hale Irwin and Steve Veriato carded 66s in 2003.
“(The wind) just made a couple shots tougher,” said Lehman, who sank a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 18. “I felt it didn’t make that much of a difference with the exception of maybe the 11th hole, which played much more difficult. (Nos.) 15 and 16 were a bit more tricky.”
Lehman played well on the course’s par-5 holes, making birdie on three of the four and draining a 22-foot putt for eagle on the par-5 10th.
The defending Charles Schwab Cup champ said two sand saves on the back nine carried his round.
On No. 14, the 52-year-old Lehman hit a pitch from an awkward stance to within 9 feet, setting up a birdie. On the following hole, he got up and down for par.
“(No. 14) was nice to keep the momentum going,” Lehman said. “I had a good par on the next hole, and that was probably the bigger deal, is recovering from the bunker from 15 for par.”
Both Lehman and Vaughan found pin placements at this year’s tournament more challenging.
“The pin on No. 14 was literally three steps from the edge of the green,” Lehman said. “It wasn’t even nine feet, I’m certain of it. That’s about as close as you can get to a green.”
Vaughan got off to the strong start he wanted coming into the tournament, making birdie on No. 1 — something he hadn’t ever done at the Mitsubishi Electric.
“I told my caddie this week that my goal was to birdie the first hole one day this week,” he said.
However, Vaughan actually played better on the back nine, making five birdies and his lone bogey of the round.
The rest of the field didn’t fare so well after the turn.
Faxon, one of six golfers playing in his first Mitsubishi Electric, got to 5-under after making his sixth birdie on No. 10. However, he couldn’t mount a charge on the back nine, stringing together six straight pars before a birdie on the par-4 17th.
Haas, who won the Schwab Cup in 2006 and 2008, missed a 12-foot birdie putt that could have tied him for the lead.
Roberts, another two-time Schwab Cup winner, tied Vaughan for the lead at 7 under with an eagle on No. 10. But he bogeyed the 11th and 13th holes.
“I just think the wind, being as strong as it was, there was more bogeys out there today than normal,” Lehman said. “It wasn’t as if you couldn’t make birdies, it was just easier to make bogeys.”
Notes: Pavin bogeyed the 11th hole, ending a 74-hole bogey-free streak at the Mitsubishi Electric. The field carded 14 bogeys and one double bogey on No. 11, and seven bogeys and four double bogeys on No. 15. … The 10th hole played the easiest, yielding seven eagles and 24 birdies. … Friday’s field average was 69.61 compared to 68.67 last year. … Besides Lehman, only four other players — Haas, Bernhard Langer (68), Tom Kite (69) and Curtis Strange (70) — had bogey-free rounds. … Roberts recorded his 19th consecutive sub-par round at the Mitsubishi Electric.
