Tewell’s 64 Leads PGA, but Some Heavyweights Are Hot on His Heels

Doug Tewell shot a course record seven-under-par 64 Thursday at Cherry Hills in the opening round of the PGA, but he may feel like the mechanical rabbit in a race of greyhounds.

Tewell is in front now, but the hounds are hot on his heels.

Defending champion Lee Trevino, five-time champion Jack Nicklaus, Corey Pavin and Peter Jacobsen are at 66.

Tom Watson, whose mission in life is to win the PGA to make a grand slam of major championships, is at 67 with Hubie Green and part-time auto racer Danny Edwards. Morris Hatalsky eagled the final hole for a 68.

On a summer day made for low scores--warm but not oppressive, with barely a hint of a breeze--coupled with Denver’s mile-high altitude, the best professional golfers in the world made Cherry Hills Country Club’s 7,089-yard par-71 course play more like a par 69 or 70.

Thirty-one of the 149 starters broke par and another 20 equaled it.

Tewell, Trevino, Nicklaus, Watson, et al, aside, the largest and most enthusiastic portion of the 16,575 spectators were at the first hole when Arnold Palmer strode to the tee shortly after noon. It was 25 years ago that Palmer drove the green--346 yards away--in the final round of the 1960 U.S. Open to generate a course-record 65 and his only Open championship.

Many were there Thursday just to see Palmer, as they are at any tournament he plays, but many more were there to see if he pulled the big club from his bag the way he did in ’60. Ninety percent of the players used irons, some as low as a 6-iron, for the tight first fairway that narrows into a funnel only about 15 yards wide where it nears the green.

Huddled around the tee, edging as close as they could with the paying customers, were a number of players, including Hubie Green and Bill Kratzert, who weren’t due to tee off for another hour. They wanted to see The General as much as any of the aging members of Arnie’s Army did.

Palmer didn’t disappoint them. His hair is gray and his stride isn’t as long when he hitches up his pants, but the style is still there. He wound up and swung with a mighty swat that sent the ball soaring into the thin air. A cheer echoed across the 63-year-old former cherry orchard that must have carried clear to Pikes Peak.

The ball fell about 25 yards short of the green, just off the fairway in thick rough.

“I guess I lost a yard for every year,” Arnie said with the familiar grin that has made him perhaps America’s most recognizable sports figure.

His ball was 90 yards ahead of ones hit by Gary Player and Bobby Nichols, who used irons off the tee.

Palmer wedged up and his ball rolled about 20 feet beyond the pin. He was 20 feet away from the hole in 1960, too. Both times he needed two putts to hole out, but the other time it was for a birdie. This time it was only a par, the start of a 75 round.

The record that Tewell broke was Palmer’s 65.

Tewell, 34, whose two wins in 10 years as a touring pro came in 1980--the Sea Pines and IVB-Philadelphia--had an eagle, six birdies and one bogey that came on the final hole.

“I showed Arnold Palmer that you can lay up on the first hole and still shoot a 65,” Tewell said. “I wouldn’t go for it with a driver at any time.” He used a 4-iron and made par.

Tewell, who grew up playing in the shadow of Mark Hayes at Stillwater (Okla.) High and Oklahoma State, credited a new copper-headed putter for his low score. He said it helped him take a shorter stroke, which helped his tempo.

Tewell also had a stroke of good fortune on the 15th hole, a 215-yard par-3 after he put his tee shot in the right bunker.

“All I wanted was a safe shot, to be sure and not hit it so hard it went in the creek.” He holed out from 60 feet.

Tewell’s eagle, one of seven made Thursday, came on No. 17, a 555-yard par-5. He hit a driver off the tee, one of five he hit all day, and followed it with a 2-iron that stopped 15 feet from the flag. Tewell sank the putt for his eagle and went eight under par.

The course got a stroke back on the par-4 finishing hole, 491 yards over a lake and uphill. Tewell’s second shot landed in a bunker. After blasting out, he missed a 15-footer that would have saved par. It was the same bunker where Andy North was in 1978 on the final day of the U.S. Open when he had to get down in two shots to win.

“I kept trying to remember how Andy did it, but I couldn’t remember,” Tewell said.

“My round was actually sort of boring. I was hitting solid shots off the tee, hitting the target areas and leaving myself easy shots to the greens.”

Boring was not the way to describe the way Trevino or Jacobsen made their 66s.

Trevino, five under par after 15 holes, made a double-bogey 6 on the 16th hole and got the two strokes back with an eagle on the next hole.

“You know, this golf is a funny game,” Trevino philosophized. “I actually hit the ball better on the 16th hole than I did on the 17th.

“On 16 (433-yard par-4), I hit a perfect 2-iron off the tee and had 132 yards to the green. I hit a 9-iron, but it flew over the green where the grass was all tangled up, and I couldn’t get the face of my clubhead on the ball. I hit it back over the green, chipped up and took two putts.

“I’ll tell you, it was one hot Mexican on that next tee. I wound up and hit a drive down where I’d never been before. It must have gone 310 to 320 yards. I had 207 yards to carry the water. I could have made it with a hard 4-iron, but I thought I’d be safer hitting a nice, high 3-iron that would drop down soft on the green. So I caught it thin. The ball hit the water, skipped three or four times, climbed the bank and rolled right up by the hole. There was no way I was going to miss that putt after lucking out the way I did.”

Jacobsen, one of the young strong boys on tour who seem certain to win a major some day, chipped in once from 20 feet for a birdie and then holed out back-to-back bunker shots on the 15th and 16th holes for two more birdies.

“I took a lesson on sand shots last week from Seve (Ballesteros) and it sure paid off today,” Jacobsen said. “I hit a pitching wedge on 15 and a sand wedge on 16. They were both about 60 feet.

“When I got to 18, I had a notion to hit my second shot in the bunker and see if I could go for three, but I thought better of it.”

Jacobsen did hit a 7-iron that left him a six-foot putt that he sank for yet another birdie and his 66.

Nicklaus, after missing the cut in both the U.S. Open and British Open, was elated at his low starting round.

“I played last week in the Western Open and got in a lot of practice time on the range. J.C. Snead and Joey Sindelar helped me with my set-up and my alignment and today I felt like I was hitting the ball the way I used to. I just hope it can carry over tomorrow. At least I’ll start out with a lot more confidence that I’ve had lately.”

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

18-HOLE LEADERS

Doug Yewell 32-32--64 Corey Pavin 32-34--66 Lee Trevino 34-32--66 Peter Jacobsen 34-32--66 Jack Nicklaus 32-34--66 Hubert Green 34-33--67 Danny Edwards 34-33--67 Tom Watson 32-35--67