Ahern leads tight race

Richard Dunn

Jim Ahern’s wife, Tudy, suffered a nasty fall down some stairs at

home earlier this week, cracking her head and injuring her back and

foot, making it impossible for her to accompany her husband to the

Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport Beach Country Club.

“If my wife was here, she’d keep telling me to just take it one

shot at time. As fundamental as that sounds, it’s so hard to do that

with your mind going in so many directions,” said Ahern, the

first-round leader of the PGA Champions Tour event, in which 38

players shot under 70, the second-highest number in a single round in

tournament history, while playing in ideal conditions Friday.

Ahern, who hasn’t finished higher than a tie for 17th this year in

four events, carded a 7-under 64 with eight birdies and one bogey [on

the par-3 No. 8].

“I hadn’t been putting that well and my caddie told me Wednesday

why not putt like Bob Murphy,” Ahern said. “My caddie had worked for

Bob. So I guess Bob Murphy was in my body today. I putted like him

and I hope he sticks with me. Murphy putts really well. I just had a

mental imagine of his stroke. He’s one of the best putters.”

Murphy, a golf analyst for NBC who’s working the Bay Hill

Invitational this weekend and is the only former Toshiba Classic

champion not in the field, will forever be remembered in Toshiba lore

for sinking an 80-foot python putt to end a tour-record nine-hole

playoff in 1997 against Jay Sigel, a two-tiered double breaker that

dropped in through the backdoor as Murphy flipped his putter and

straw hat in the air to celebrate on the 17th green just before dark.

There were no such dramatics in the first round for Ahern, but

Newport Beach’s 6,584-yard, par-71 golf course played right into the

hands of many players -- 45 players shot under-par rounds -- and if

the conditions remain the same today and Sunday, as expected, there

could be tournament scoring records falling. The 38 players under 70

is second in one round to last year’s final round, when 41 players

did it.

“We just had perfect weather today -- it was warm and no wind,”

said Ahern, who tied his career-best round on the Champions Tour and

posted his best round at Newport Beach.

Rodger Davis and Lanny Wadkins each shot 6-under 65 and are tied

for second, while four players are at 5-under 66 -- Wayne Levi, David

Eger, 2001 Toshiba champion Jose Maria Canizares and Mark McCumber --

and four players are squared at 4-under 67. Monday open qualifier

Rafael Navarro, John Jacobs, Bruce Lietzke and defending Toshiba

champion Hale Irwin are bunched together at 67, one stroke ahead of

14 players who shot rounds of 3-under 68. There are 13 players at

2-under 69.

“Without a lot of wind, it was good scoring conditions,” said

Eger, who won the MasterCard Classic two weeks ago in Mexico and is

playing at Newport Beach for the first time since 1981, when he teed

it up in the former Crosby Southern Pro-Am, a two-day mini-tour event

operated by the same Hoag Hospital volunteer group that manages the

Toshiba Senior Classic.

Wadkins, who shot his best round on the Champions Tour since last

March, is a rare competitor these days on the tour because of his

busy schedule as a golf analyst for CBS. But he had no problem

analyzing the Newport Beach greens as he sank five birdies on the

first six holes on the back nine, including three in a row at 13, 14

and 15.

“I haven’t played a lot of golf lately,” Wadkins said. “But I

worked hard on Tuesday and Wednesday and played well in the pro-am

[Thursday] ... for me it was a very solid round. I felt pretty good

about it.”

Davis, who will tee off last in the second round today with Ahern

and Wadkins at 12:50 p.m., stressed the importance of playing well

early in a three-round tournament.

“On this tour, you have to have a good first round,” said Davis,

who birdied the first three holes. “You’ve got to get out of the

blocks fast. Too many guys out here can go low on the first day and

they don’t back it up.”

Of the four players tied for fourth at 66, Navarro might be the

biggest surprise. The medalist in the Monday open qualifier at Goose

Creek in Mira Loma, Navarro, who is not listed in the 2003 PGA

Champions Tour media guide, went from one extreme to the other.

Navarro birdied three of the first four holes, then double bogeyed

No. 5. He added birdies on Nos. 7 and 9. On the back nine, Navarro

bogeyed No. 13, before rallying t birdie 14 and 15.

A golf instructor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Navarro went to

Champions Tour Qualifying School last fall, but came up short in

earning his card to be fully exempt. “It’s a tough life trying to

Monday qualify each week,” Navarro said. “I’ll try to do that the

remainder of this year. I enjoy teaching golf.”

In addition to Irwin placing himself in the hunt with his 67,

Doyle certainly cannot be overlooked as a possible winner with his

opening 68.

For Doyle, the 2000 Toshiba Senior Classic champion in a

rain-shortened 36-hole event because inclement weather canceled the

final round, shot his 12th straight round under 70 in as many starts

at Newport Beach. Doyle, who finished as runner-up to Irwin last

year, has been in the top three for four straight years.