Saturday, January 19, 2002
[ MASTERCARD CHAMPIONSHIP ]
Kite rides the wind KA'UPULEHU-KONA, Hawaii >> They have a saying in the Lone Star State: If you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes and it will change.
to top score
Seniors who have seen everything
are still trying to figure
out Hualalai's tradesBy Paul Arnett
parnett@starbulletin.comTexan Tom Kite knows all about those wind alterations and put that knowledge to good use during the first round of the $1.5 million MasterCard Championship at the Hualalai Golf Club.
Beginning in the gusty trades and ending in something that's so rare it doesn't have a name, Kite fashioned a tournament-record 63 yesterday to take a three-stroke lead entering today's second round of the opening tournament of the Senior PGA Tour.
Defending champion Larry Nelson is all alone in second place, three strokes off the torrid pace by Kite, who had two eagles on the frontside to distance himself from the field of 33 seniors. Tied for third with 5-under-par 67s were Doug Tewell, Bob Gilder and Jim Colbert. Five golfers came in with 68s, including two Wadkins, Bobby and Lanny, and two Bruces, Lietzke and Fleisher.
And to a man, the changes in the weather along the Kona Coast of the Big Island was a hotter topic than Kite's record-setting round.
"Let me ask you about it, what's up with this wind?" Fleisher said to a small group of reporters. "First it's windy. Then it's not. It made things very interesting. The wind woke me up about five this morning.
"And I said to myself, 'You know what? We may not play today. I don't see how we're going to keep the ball on the greens.' It almost quit on my back nine for a while, very unusual. And then it kind of turned around. Let's face it. The wind is always a factor here."
That's one reason guys like Kite, Lietzke and Lanny Wadkins are among the early leaders. They are all from Texas, where the wind blows from every direction imaginable.
"Starting the day, I don't think anyone imagined the scores would be so low," Kite said. "It was blowing so hard last night and early this morning. And on the first six holes, we had the trades and they were blowing like crazy.
"And then all of a sudden, when we were on the 15th hole, which was our sixth, we hit our drives straight downwind and then we hit our second shots straight into the wind. In a matter of minutes, a couple of minutes, the whole wind turned just about 180 degrees. Then the golf course played entirely different than what it was."
It certainly suited Kite. The golfers teed up on No. 10 for TV purposes. After shooting a 32 on the backside, Kite followed it up with a blistering 31 on the front. He eagled both par-5s en route to carding five consecutive 3s, something you aren't going to see that often.
"Especially when two of them are par-5s," Kite said. "One thing about golf, a three on your card is never going to hurt you. To get five in a row that way, I'm not sure I've ever done it. Very unusual for me because I never scored that many eagles in my career in the first place.
"The golf course played, at least the last half of the round, what it did last year. The wind changed at about 10:30. It totally flipped. It was really weird. Yeah, it can happen in Texas. But they seem to have a lot of microclimates over here, too. Some of the volunteers walking with us said the trades could be with us for a couple of days. Six holes later, they were gone."
Fortunately for the senior set, the high scores were gone with the wind. Only nine golfers in the field shot worse than par, including such notables as Hale Irwin (73), Hubert Green (74), Lee Trevino (74) and Gary Player (75).
Nelson said he was fortunate not to be in that group. The soft-spoken Georgia resident worked on his game this week with different irons and woods. And while he wasn't striking it as well as he would like, he was glad to be near the top of the leaderboard after 18 holes.
"The wind switched at No. 18 for me," Nelson said of his ninth hole. "We played the backside and the frontside in two different winds. It was nice to get off to a good start (yesterday). You can't win the tournament after 18 holes, but it's better than shooting a 74 and trying to catch up."
At Hualalai Golf Club MasterCard Championship
Kaupulehu-Kona, Hawaii
Purse: $1.5 million
Yardage: 7,053; Par: 72 (36-36)
First Round
Tom Kite 31-32 -- 63 Larry Nelson 32-34 -- 66 Doug Tewell 33-34 -- 67 Bob Gilder 32-35 -- 67 Jim Colbert 33-34 -- 67 Walter Hall 34-34 -- 68 Dave Eichelberger 33-35 -- 68 Bruce Fleisher 34-34 -- 68 Bruce Lietzke 33-35 -- 68 Bobby Wadkins 33-35 -- 68 Lanny Wadkins 35-34 -- 69 Mike McCullough 35-34 -- 69 George Archer 33-37 -- 70 Jose Maria Canizares 34-36 -- 70 Jim Thorpe 34-36 -- 70 John Jacobs 36-34 -- 70 Tom Wargo 34-36 -- 70 Dana Quigley 35-36 -- 71 Tom Watson 35-36 -- 71 Gil Morgan 35-36 -- 71 Tom Jenkins 36-35 -- 71 Graham Marsh 36-36 -- 72 Allen Doyle 33-39 -- 72 Steve Veriato 36-36 -- 72 Hale Irwin 36-37 -- 73 John Schroeder 39-34 -- 73 Joe Inman 38-36 -- 74 Hubert Green 36-38 -- 74 Ed Dougherty 34-40 -- 74 Lee Trevino 36-38 -- 74 Gary Player 37-38 -- 75 Sammy Rachels 37-38 -- 75 Leonard Thompson 41-37 -- 78