Golf Roundup : Levi’s 62 Beats Darkness, Leads in Stormy Nelson

Wayne Levi finished a round of 62 with a birdie on the final hole, just before darkness halted play, to take the lead Thursday in the incomplete first round of the storm-disrupted Byron Nelson tournament at Dallas.

Levi’s eight-under-par score tied the course record on the TPC at Las Colinas, which was dotted with pools and puddles of casual water left by severe morning thunderstorms.

Those storms delayed the start of play for four hours and eventually left 60 players with unfinished rounds due to darkness.

They marked their positions and were scheduled to return at daylight this morning to complete first-round play.

The second round was to follow immediately. But the delay in completing the first round--and a forecast calling for a 30% chance of more thunderstorms--raised the possibility that today’s play also could run out of daylight.

“Even if there are no more storms, we can pretty much figure that our starting times are going to be pushed back about an hour tomorrow,” said Larry Nelson, who sloshed to a 63.

Levi, who scored the last of his eight career victories in 1985, dropped a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to equal the course record set by Bob Lohr in 1987.

“It was so dark, I couldn’t really see the line on the putt,” he said. “I probably shouldn’t have putted it, but I didn’t want to come back at the crack of dawn tomorrow.”

“I personally feel it was too wet to play,” said David Rummells, one of five early finishers at 64.

“The fairways were very, very wet,” said Peter Jacobsen, who also shot a 64--as did Payne Stewart, Hal Sutton and Sam Randolph.

Sweden’s Mats Lanner birdied seven of the first eight holes in scoring the most lopsided victory of the $510,000 Grand Prix of Europe match play tournament, an 8-and-6 win over Spaniard Manuel Pinero in the first round at Chepstow, Wales.