Golf Roundup : Monster Drives in Texas Wind Help Bean Lead by One

Veteran Andy Bean, using the gusty 30-m.p.h. West Texas wind to his advantage with monster drives, eagled the final hole Friday for a five-under-par 67 and a record 11-under par 133 that gave him a one-shot lead in the second round of the $400,000 Southwest golf tournament at Abilene, Tex.

In second place was Mike Reid, who shot a 66 and had 10 one-putt greens.

Two shots back were 1983 PGA champion Hal Sutton and former U.S. Amateur champion Bill Sander, who had 67s.

Bean, who started the day tied for the lead with Steve Jones, cranked out 300-yard drives to set up easy wedges to long par-fours and irons to the par-fives at the wind-whipped, 7,166-yard Fairway Oaks Golf Club.

Playing the 536-yard, par-five No. 9 last, the 6-4, 210-pound Bean carried a drive more than 300 yards and drilled a 4-iron 230 yards, within six feet of the pin. He sank the putt for an eagle-3 to finish off the morning round that broke the tournament record for 36 holes, of nine under par, held by three other players.

“The wind might be a blessing because the harder it blows the more it makes me concentrate,” Bean said. “I was really concentrating and hitting my drive extremely well. I was outdriving my playing partners 50 yards. I was letting it out.”

Bean’s only bogey came when he three-putted the par-four No. 13 from 40 feet after stubbing his first putt.

“It’s hard to hit a putt fat, but I did,” Bean said. “I just flat hit the grass in front of the ball.”

Penny Hammel shot a six-under-par 66 to take the lead in the first round of a $250,000 LPGA tournament at San Jose.

Hammel, a leading candidate for Rookie of the Year honors, was two strokes ahead of Pat Bradley. Amy Benz, Nancy Rubin and Missie McGeorge were another stroke back.

Nancy Lopez, battling Bradley for the year’s money title, took a two-stroke penalty and was tied at 70 with defending champion Amy Alcott, Joanne Carner, Beth Daniel, Jo Ann Washam, Kim Shipman and Cindy Mackey.

Lopez was rolling with four consecutive birdies when she pushed her tee shot right on the par-five 10th hole. The search for the missing ball continued while two groups played through, and then the ball was declared lost, apparently because a spectator picked it up.

Lopez was assessed the two strokes and had to go back to the tee and hit again. Despite a birdie with her second ball, she wound up with a 6 on the hole.

Gay Brewer shot a five-under-par 67 for a 135 total to take a three-stroke lead in the World Seniors Invitational tournament at Charlotte, N.C.

Brewer had birdies on the first three holes of the 6,841-yard Quail Hollow Country Club course to break away from Bob Toski and Jim Ferree, who shared second. Toski shot a 70 and Ferree a 69.

Miller Barber, who had a 67, is fourth at 139.

Arnold Palmer and Roberto DeVicenzo, who tied a tournament record with rounds of 66, are at 141, along with leading Seniors money winner Peter Thomson, who had a 69.

Ireland’s Christy O’Connor Jr. shot a five-under-par 67 to share the halfway lead with Spain’s Severiano Ballesteros in a $167,000 international golf tournament at Barcelona, Spain.

The leaders were at 136 after two rounds on the 6,503-yard El Prat course.