GOLF / SENIORS AT OJAI : Blancas and Zembriski Shoot 64s to Set Course Record

Senior PGA Tour golfers have taken a liking to the Ojai Valley Inn and Country Club course. Of course, shooting 64 will turn any player-layout relationship into a love-in.

Homero Blancas and Walt Zembriski led a birdie barrage with six-under-par 64s in the first round of the $350,000 GTE West tournament Thursday.

The 54-hole event continues through Saturday.

The old course record, 65, was set in the pro-am Tuesday by Jim Dent and Larry Ziegler.

One-third of the field of 75 finished below par 70 on the 6,190-yard layout.

Blancas and Zembriski, playing in the same threesome, missed seven-foot birdie putts on the 17th hole and wound up two strokes in front of Bob Charles and Senior Tour rookies Dent and Frank Beard. Seven players, including Orville Moody and Chi Chi Rodriguez, shot 67.

Arnold Palmer had his usual big gallery, but he also had a faulty putting stroke. Four three-putt greens contributed to his 72, eight shots off the pace in a bid for his first tournament win of the season.

Not surprisingly, the course in the hills above Ventura drew raves.

“It certainly isn’t a U.S. Open course,” said Charles, the tour’s money leader, after finishing with birdies on three of the last four holes. “But I love the course. It’s a great resort course. It’s fun to play and it’s in super condition.

“It favors guys who hit the ball straight and are good with wedges and putters. However, I got three of my birdies after nine-irons to the green.”

Zembriski, who won the richest senior event last year, the RJR, hasn’t had a victory since.

“This is my kind of course,” he said. “I had only one bad shot all day and when I birdied the first three holes, it gave me confidence.

“I tell you what, I’ll gladly take two more 64s and take my chances.”

Blancas was only three under par before sinking a curving, 30-foot putt for a birdie on the par-four 15th hole. On No. 16, he deliberated between a pitching wedge and a sand wedge, choosing the pitching wedge and barely clearing the trap in front of the green. Then, from 35 feet in high grass, he sank his chip shot for another birdie.

“It’s nice to break a record, but it will not stand up,” Blancas said. “This is the kind of course (on which) someone could duplicate Al Geiberger’s 59.

“Walt was playing so well, he could easily have shot a 61 or 62. That’s getting close.”

Beard hasn’t won a tournament, but he said he has exceeded expectations. “This is the kind of course I like,” he said. “But today it was the longest ‘short’ course I’ve ever played. I must be losing my strength. My putter saved me.”

Dent had all sorts of trouble early. On the first hole, a par-four dogleg to the right, he tried to cut the corner, and his ball lodged so close to a tree that he could barely knock it out on the fairway, finally settling for a bogey. On No. 4, he rimmed a one-foot putt for a birdie. When he double-bogeyed No. 11 after leaving a trap shot in the sand, he was one over par.

“I gave myself a pep talk at this point,” he said. “Maybe I’d better do that more often, because I sure straightened out.”

He birdied five of the last seven holes to move into contention.