Las Vegas Golf : Eagle Finish Gives Irwin Share of Lead

Hale Irwin sank a 40-foot eagle putt on the final hole Wednesday to gain a share of the first-round lead in the five-day, $1.25-million Las Vegas Invitational.

Irwin’s 18th-hole heroics completed a seven-under-par 65 and lifted him into a tie for the lead with Billy Glasson, Gene Sauers and Mike Miles, who is making his second try on the PGA Tour.

“The best I’ve ever played,” said Miles, who competed on the mini-tours for a couple of years after losing his tour playing rights for lack of performance in 1986.

Sauers, a winner at Hawaii earlier this year, Irwin and Miles all played at Spanish Trail, one of three desert resort courses used for the first three rounds of this 90-hole chase for a $225,000 first prize.

Glasson, who won at Doral in February, had his seven-under-par effort at the Las Vegas Country Club.

The group at 66 included Steve Pate, Rocco Mediate, Tom Purtzer, David Peoples, Chris Perry, David Canipe, Mark O’Meara and South African Fulton Allem.

Mediate, Purtzer, Pate, Peoples and Perry played at Spanish Trail. Allem, O’Meara and Canipe were at Las Vegas Country Club.

Of the leaders, only Sauers and Glasson played in the afternoon when conditions changed dramatically. Winds increased, temperatures dropped and some desert showers developed.

John Mahaffey and Tony Sills, at 67, had the best rounds at the shorter Desert Inn course.