Verplank, Mayfair Shoot 70s, Set Early Pace in PGA Tourney : Golf: Faldo, Stewart, 4 others end round 1 shot off lead with half the field still out. Hale Irwin struggles to 5-over-par 77.

Former U.S. Amateur champions Scott Verplank and Billy Mayfair shot 2-under-par 70s today to share the lead among the early finishers in the 72nd PGA Championship.

Verplank, who once had a 5-under total in the round, fell back with a bogey-5 on the 15th hole and a double bogey-7 on No. 17 when his tee shot strayed into some woods,

Mayfair had four birdies and two bogeys in his trip around the 7,145-yard Shoal Creek golf club course.

Verplank was the national amateur champion in 1984 and Mayfair won the title three years ago.

“I can’t remember playing a harder course,” Mayfair said.

“I think that’s what the PGA wants,” said defending champ Payne Stewart, who was tied with Masters and British Open champion Nick Faldo at 71.

Also finishing the first round with 71 were Chip Beck, Tim Simpson, Steve Pate and Bryan Tennyson.

“It’s like the U.S.G.A. likes to see; the PGA wants to see the winning score somewhere around par.”

And, with about half the field still out, par became a very acceptable target. And for some of golf’s more storied names, it was an unreachable goal.

Take Hale Irwin, for example. The three-time U.S. Open winner, long noted as a man who plays his best on golf’s more difficult courses, thrashed his way to a 77, five over par.

Jack Nicklaus, who counts five PGA championships in his record collection of 18 major profesional titles, was one shot higher. His 78 included a fat 40 over the front.

Curtis Strange and Tom Kite, golf’s two most prolific money-winners in recent years, each took a 79.

And Arnold Palmer, the 60-year-old who is making a 33rd run at the one big title that has eluded him, had an embarrassing 81 that included an 8 on the 11th hole.

The golfer’s most common nemesis--wind--was not a major factor. Little more than a balmy breeze stirred the tree leaves. Weather was not a problem. No rain. Temperatures in the low 80s, relatively mild for a deep south summer.

It was the rough, that lush Bermuda that could swallow a ball and hide it, take it completely out of sight only a few inches from the fairway.

“I missed the fairway by maybe a foot (on the fourth hole) and I had no shot,” Verplank said.

Verplank birdied the first three holes. He turned in 32 and appeared to be on his way to an uncontested lead until the wild drive on the 17th.

“About 50 yards to the right,” he said. “But it wasn’t the yards. It was about 10,000 trees to the right. It was all those cones and twigs and leaves to the right. It was about three clubs to the right,” he said.

“I knew I couldn’t get it back to the fairway with my second shot, but I still thought I could make par,” he said.

But he hit a tree and moved it only about 10 yards.

“After that, I thought maybe I could still make bogey,” he said.

But a third swing failed to extract him from the woods and weeds. Now he’s thinking double. A shot into the bunker left him wondering just what the total might reach. It took him six to reach the putting surface.