SENIOR GOLF / THE TRADITION : Gilbert Sees Five-Shot Lead Disappear

For a time Friday, Gibby Gilbert threatened to make a runaway of The Tradition. That was before, in his words, his pants fell off.

Gilbert, who trailed by a shot after a six-under 66 in the first round at Desert Mountain, had taken a five-shot lead, knocking off seven more strokes in 11 holes.

By losing four strokes to par in the next three holes, Gilbert came back to the pack, finished with a 69 and 135, nine under for 36 holes and tied with Raymond Floyd and Charles Coody for the lead.

One shot back were Dale Douglass, who had a 68, Jimmy Powell (69), Isao Aoki (69) and Jim Colbert, who tied Calvin Peete for the best round of the day, a 66. Peete, seeking his first senior victory, is at five-under 139.

Dave Stockton, who was 10 shots behind early in the day, birdied the last two holes and is at 138, only three shots behind the leaders.

“Gibby was throwing a no-hitter, but it got away from him,” Stockton said. “I’ll be right there at the finish.”

Gilbert, who birdied 18 Thursday, is a streak putter. After sinking 15- and 20-footers for birdies on two and three, he barely missed on two more before sinking birdie putts of five and 10 feet, lipping out on a 20-footer and sinking a 20-footer to finish the front side with a five-under 31. He dropped 10- and eight-foot putts to start the back nine and go to 13 under.

“It was fun,” he said. “I was laughing and enjoying it. When my putter gets hot, it stays that way. Everything turned suddenly.

“I hit a good drive on the par-five 12th, but it was a mediocre lie and ordinarily I would have played safe, but the adrenaline was flowing. I hit the shot into the desert, had an unplayable lie and bogeyed. On the next hole, the wind gusted, I landed short on the par three, didn’t get the next one on and missed a six-footer for a double bogey.”

He hit his approach over the green on 14 and the resulting bogey made it a wide-open tournament.

“I really can’t feel too bad,” Gilbert said. “Despite the wheels coming off, I was in the 60s again. I feel at the end of the day my game was back. Tied at the halfway point isn’t too bad.”

Defending champion Tom Shaw lost all chance to repeat. He was three under going to the shortest hole on the course, the 136-yard 13th. He buried his tee shot in the trap, failed to get out until the third attempt and still wasn’t on, then two-putted and wound up with a quadruple bogey. He shot a 78 and trails the leaders by 10 shots.

Floyd could have broken it open. But he missed six putts of less than 10 feet and settled for a 70.

“I’m not accustomed to playing mountain courses,” he said. “Until you get used to them, the greens are hard to read. This is my second time here and I have a problem. Yesterday, I guess I was lucky. Today they seemed to break the wrong way.”

Gilbert has figured out the breaks. “Just find where Pinnacle Peak is,” he said. “Everything breaks toward it no matter how it looks.”

Coody, who suffered a pinched nerve in his neck that threatened to end his career two years ago, had a 67, the best round for the leaders.

Douglass has a winter home down the hill in Paradise Valley and is a neighbor of Tom Weiskopf, who is six under after a 70.

“I seem to play my best golf in the West,” Douglass said. “Maybe it’s because I like the West better than any other part of the country.”

Even Jack Nicklaus at 141 isn’t out of it. A few years ago, Nicklaus was 12 back after 36 holes and won it.

No longer in contention is Don January. After an opening 67, January soared to a 77.