Black’s 67 Gives Him One-Shot Lead; Sea Gull Gives Fleisher ‘Double Birdie’

Ronnie Black overcame high winds and heavy rains to shoot a five-under-par 67, his best round of the season, Thursday and take a one-shot lead in the first round of the $700,000 Honda golf tournament. Joey Sindelar had a 68 for second place.

Fred Wadsworth was another stroke back, tied with Ken Brown of Scotland and John Mahaffey, after getting two eagles.

“How can you have your best round of the year in stuff like this?” Black asked after making seven birdies on the TPC course at Eagle Trace.

Brad Faxon, who shot a 70, had the day’s oddest moment when a meddlesome sea gull interfered with his ball on the first hole. Faxon’s ball simply disappeared after he and his playing partners, Bruce Fleisher and Bruce Lietzke, had driven into the middle of the fairway.

“We got down there and there were only two balls,” said Faxon, who started on the back nine. “The marshal came running out to tell us about the sea gull.”

Faxon said the bird picked up the ball in his beak, flew 50 yards into the rough and deposited the ball in a hazard, about a foot from a lake. The bird then returned to the fairway and was nudging Fleisher’s ball in the same direction when the marshal scared it away.

“We called for a ruling,” Faxon said. “When Mike Shea (a PGA Tour official) got there, we told him about it. He started laughing. First time I ever saw an official laughing when he made a ruling.”

The bird was declared an “outside agency,” and the players replaced the balls as close as possible to their original positions.

Fleisher pitched to the green and made a 15-foot putt for what Faxon called “a double birdie.” Faxon had to settle for a par 4.