Three Chip-Ins Help Sauers Shoot a 66 and Take a One-Stroke Lead in Colonial

Gene Sauers chipped in three times while shooting a four-under-par 66 that gave him a one-stroke lead in the first round of the $600,000 Colonial National Invitation golf tournament Thursday.

It was his first time on the Colonial Country Club golf course. “I hadn’t even seen the course before,” Sauers, 23, said. “I just followed my caddy around.”

At one point, on the far reaches of the course, his name on the leaderboard was misspelled as Savers . It was appropriate. He saved himself with his short game.

Sauers, who last week equaled his career-best finish with a tie for fourth place at Dallas, chipped in for birdies on the third and eighth holes. He chipped in for par on the 14th and made a 20-foot putt for par on the 17th.

Bill Rogers, who hasn’t won in three years, one-putted the first six greens and shot a 67 in the worst of the afternoon winds to take second place.

The large group at 68 included Jim Thorpe, Lennie Clements, South African Nick Price, Scott Simpson, Danny Edwards, Dan Pohl, Howard Twitty and D. A. Weibring.

Tom Watson was three under par until he hit into the water on the ninth hole and had a triple-bogey 7. He made a double-bogey on the next hole and eventually struggled home in 75.