NEWPORT PRO-AM GOLF TOURNAMENT : Jeff Hart, Brian Claar Share Two-Shot Lead at 66

Jeff Hart and Brian Claar shot five-under-par 66s to share the lead after the first round of the 36-hole Newport Pro-Am golf tournament Friday at the Newport Beach Country Club.

Ernie Gonzales of San Diego is two strokes back of the leaders at 68, and Newport Beach’s Ted Norby is tied with six others at 69.

Costa Mesa’s Perry Parker, the defending Newport champion, shot a three-over 74.

Hart, 29, of Solana Beach, Calif., hit 16 greens in regulation and made five birdies.

“I always seem to play good here,” said Hart, who tied for second in last year’s tournament. “This course suits my game real well. It’s not a real long course (6,546 yards), but you have to hit it straight and be accurate to do well.”

Hart, who turned pro after he graduated from USC in 1983, has won five satellite tour events. His best finish on the PGA Tour was a tie for 11th place at the 1989 Kemper Open. Hart was 169th on the tour money list last year.

Claar, of Tampa, Fla., birdied the 18th hole to tie for the lead. After three-putting the par-3 17th, he put his second shot on the par-4 18th 2 1/2 feet from the hole and made the putt.

“You need to make putts to do well here,” said Claar, who finished ninth in last year’s tournament. “Everything is supposed to break toward the ocean, but I don’t know where the ocean is.”

Claar, 30, has won seven satellite tour events. He finished fifth at the 1989 U.S. Open and was 133rd on the PGA Tour money list last year.

In the pro-am competition, two-time Newport winner John McComish and amateur partner George Argyros, former owner of the Seattle Mariners, are in a three-way tie for the lead with Michael Springer and amateur Peter Foulke and Kent Kluba and amateur Richard Bertea.

Hart and his amateur partner, Michael Drucker, are one stroke off the lead.

The final round of the tournament begins at 7:05 a.m. today, with the leaders teeing off about 10:30.