GOLF ROUNDUP : Wadkins, Sauers Lead at Greensboro

Lanny Wadkins said Forest Oaks Country Club didn’t give up a lot Friday, but he and Gene Sauers squeezed some low numbers out of it to share the lead midway through the Greater Greensboro Open.

Wadkins came away with a seven-under-par 65 and a two-day total of 134. Sauers followed in the afternoon with a 64, one stroke shy of the tournament record, to match Wadkins’ 10-under-par total in the $1.25-million tournament.

“This course is no cinch,” said Wadkins, the tournament champion in 1983. “You’ve got to keep driving at the fairway.

“The golf course didn’t give me a thing today. I earned everything I got out there.”

What Wadkins earned was eight birdies and one bogey in a round that started in light rain. Sauers attacked the back nine with a run of five birdies for a total of nine--one bogey tainted his day.

“It was just a perfect day for scoring,” Sauers said.

Early morning showers gave way to a partly cloudy sky and little wind across the 7,000-yard course. The result was a cut in which players who didn’t score at least par were out.

Wadkins had birdie putts of 25, 30 and 40 feet as well as two six-footers. He also saved par twice on the back nine.

“I think my swing might be more solid than it’s ever been in the 20 years I’ve been on tour,” Wadkins said. “And I’ve improved my putting. I think my play the last year has been a good result of that.”

Sauers was strongest from the fairways, hitting iron shots near the flagstick for his three birdies on the front nine. On his back nine, he bogeyed the third hole, and Sauers said that set off a mental alarm.

“I had a three-footer on the third hole that I missed that did something to me,” he said. “When I missed that putt, I steered it at the hole. I said, ‘Just quit steering it and line it up and hit it.’ Nine out of 10 times, it will go in.”

It did, five times on the back side.

Mike Hill, who birdied the final four holes, and Jimmy Powell shot six-under-par 66s to share the lead after the first round of the $300,000 Doug Sanders Celebrity Classic at Houston.

Hill and Powell held a two-shot lead over five players--including defending champion Lee Trevino--with four-under-par 68s on the par-72, 6,564-yard Deerwood Club course.

Powell had one bogey and seven birdies, including a 20-yard shot with a sand wedge that had to go up and over a hill on the par-four first hole.

Hill three-putted from 50 feet on the par-four ninth hole and hit a six-iron in the water on the par-three 12th hole for bogeys, but he overcame those two holes with eight birdies.