GOLF ROUNDUP : Nicklaus Home, Alone in Lead With a 66

Jack Nicklaus is leading the 52nd PGA Seniors Championship only because he’s playing at home.

“If I’d had to go somewhere to play this week, I wouldn’t have gone,” Nicklaus said Thursday after a birdie-birdie finish capped off a first-round 66 at Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

He is coming off an unsuccessful attempt at a seventh Masters championship and he said it’s usually difficult for him to compete immediately after one of golf’s major events.

“Sure, it’s hard to play right after the Masters,” Nicklaus said.

“But this is easy. It’s just a 10-minute drive” from his home at Lost Tree Village to the PGA National Golf Club.

Nicklaus held a one-stroke lead over a man he’s never met, Tom Joyce, a club pro from Huntington, N.Y.

Joyce, who hasn’t played competitively since taking the national senior club pro championship last October, shot 67 despite a double bogey from the water on the 17th hole.

“You know, some of the great players--Nicklaus, Trevino, Player--they’d take a 67 and just run with it,” he said, then added:

“To tell you the truth, I’m just trying to make the cut.”

George Archer was alone at 68, two behind the leader.

Gary Player, the defending champion and a three-time winner of this event, complained of poor putting after shooting a 73. Chi Chi Rodriguez had the same total.

A shot into the pond on the 17th gave Lee Trevino a double bogey and he shot 72. Arnold Palmer had a 74.

It was what Davis Love III failed to do that enabled him to accomplish what he did at the Heritage Classic at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Love didn’t have a bogey, which was so rare a feat the sixth-year pro couldn’t remember the last time he did that.

But Love did have an eagle and four birdies en route to a six-under-par 65 to share the opening-round lead with Kirk Triplett.

“No bogeys was nice,” said Love, whose first of two PGA victories came in the 1987 Heritage. “I’ve been making a lot of bogeys lately.

“Last week, I made 20 birdies in four rounds and shot one over par.”

Triplett had six birdies and, like Love, no bogeys in his first time at Harbour Town Golf Links.

Love and Triplett are one stroke ahead of Mark McCumber, who had six birdies and one bogey for a 66. Four golfers are tied at 67.