Big names headed
to Turtle Bay

KAUPULEHU, Hawaii » The Turtle Bay Championship benefits from having the MasterCard preceding it, much like the Sony Open in Hawaii enjoys the winners-only Mercedes as its lead-in.

Only four of the 37 golfers playing this week on the Big Island opted out of the trip to Oahu. Three of those -- Tom Kite, Peter Jacobsen and Craig Stadler -- made the cut at the Sony Open last week and decided to go back to the mainland for future PGA Tour events in California.

Stewart Ginn is the fourth player not in the first full-field event on the Champions Tour. He is currently an eighth alternate and is not likely to be one of the 78 qualifiers at Turtle Bay. The official list was released yesterday and it's a good one.

The field includes Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Hubert Green, Dana Quigley, Fuzzy Zoeller and Isao Aoki. Irwin is the four-time defending champion, although the event was moved to January and not part of the 2004 schedule.

Irwin last won at Turtle Bay in October 2003. His current streak at this Champions Tour stop includes a win at Ka'anapali in 2000, the last time it was played on Maui, before finding a new home at Turtle Bay. This field is the strongest since moving to the North Shore golf course that was designed by Palmer.

Let's get walking: A rule the Champions Tour first flirted with 14 months ago has now come to fruition; no more golf carts for any of the players. They will walk all the courses from now on. Is that a good thing? You won't get any argument from first-round leader Watson.

"Everybody should walk if they can," Watson said. "I think it's better for the players, better for our image. Certainly there are some drawbacks for people like Tom Purtzer (bad back). That's the gray area right there. Do you make everyone walk or everyone ride."

Zoeller, the defending champion, didn't mind the walk and he's coming off some serious surgeries.

"I'll go with the mooses on the cart issue," Zoeller said. "I don't have a problem with the decision. I'm a worker, so I will go with the flow."

Zoeller rounds into form: Zoeller overcame a hernia operation and angioplasty on Dec. 30 to finish with a solid 4-under 68.

"I don't know how I did it, just lucky I guess," Zoeller said. "When the wind dies, it makes these back holes a lot easier. And it definitely went down during the afternoon. These greens are absolutely perfect. They remind me of the old Hawaiian Open greens when you could get it on line and watch them roll forever. Just a beautiful day."

There was some question whether Zoeller would be healthy enough to defend his only win in 2004. His doctor asked Zoeller to quit smoking and drinking, prompting Zoeller to say, "Doc, let me quit one at a time or you are going to kill me."

Zoeller managed the longest drive of the day. He smacked it 372 yards on the par-5 10th. He wound up with a birdie.

Injury helps: Vicente Fernandez entered this week's MasterCard Championship with very little golf in his bag. After injuring his ring finger trying to adjust a foam back pad while doing early-morning stretches, the Argentina resident spent the last eight weeks trying to get well.

It was the longest layoff in a quarter-century for Fernandez, who said yesterday he was pumped up to play in this winners-only event. The 58-year-old spent 32 hours coming from Buenos Aires, but after shooting an opening-round 67, he was happy to be back on a golf course.

"The time off was good for me," Fernandez said. "I was excited to go today. I didn't know what to expect. I feel much fresher mentally now. I was actually nervous today. I don't remember the last time I felt like that."

The anxiety didn't seem to bother him. Fernandez had five birdies and no bogeys, and benefited from a couple of chip-ins to keep him near the top of the leaderboard. He was the early leader in the clubhouse before Watson and Wayne Levi passed him and several other golfers joined him at 5 under, including Stadler, 1999 MasterCard winner John Jacobs and 2003 MasterCard champion Quigley.

"The conditions were very windy when we started," Fernandez said. "But it died down at the 16th, maybe one-club difference. I'm looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow."

Inside the numbers: The par-3 fifth turned out to be the most difficult hole of the first round, yielding a scoring average of 3.514. There were four birdies, 14 pars, 15 bogeys and four double bogeys at that difficult 205-yard hole, which was made even tougher in the wind.

The easiest was the par-5 10th with a scoring average of 4.297. There were three eagles at that hole by Fernandez, Jim Ahern and Mark McNulty. There were also 21 birdies, 12 pars and one bogey by Player.