Morgan Shoots 62 to Smoke the Field

About the only times Walter Morgan doesn’t have a cigar stuck in his mouth, he’s in the shower or in bed. Otherwise, Morgan likes a stogie, which rhymes with bogey, which he tries to avoid.

Morgan says there’s no set number of cigars he smokes on the golf course.

“Depends on how slow the round is and how bad I’m playing,” he said.

So, yes, those were actual smoke signals Morgan was sending Friday from the Ojai Valley Inn and Country Club, where he shot an incendiary 62 and took the first-round lead in the FHP Health Care Classic.

Morgan, a 54-year-old Army veteran who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, puffed and putted his way to the best round on the Senior PGA Tour this year and his best since he joined it in 1991.

It took Morgan only 26 putts and four cigars to build a two-shot lead over Gary Player and Jack Kiefer, who finished at six-under-par 64 on a sunny opening day with hardly enough breeze to disperse cigar smoke.

Actually, there is a method to Morgan’s cigar smoking on the course. He said it’s a teaching aid.

“Helps me keep my swing short,” Morgan said. “Just a reminder.”

Nine birdies and a bogey later, no one had to remind Morgan he had the lead. He’s not in totally unfamiliar territory. Last year, he won his first event, the GTE Northwest Classic, and banked $423,756, which is a giant step up from his earnings as a club pro at Fort Hood or Copperas Cove in Texas.

Orville Moody, Rives McBee and John Paul Cain all urged Morgan to take his cheroots to the senior tour. Morgan gladly went along, basically because he felt he belonged.

“I knew I had the game to come out here,” he said. “My game was as good as theirs, and I knew I could make some money out here too.”

Player, who has made more than $6 million on the PGA Tour and the senior tour, was so happy about his 64 he was reeking with confidence.

“Well, we’ve got Augusta coming up soon, I’m feeling very fit at the moment,” he said. “I’m not saying I will win the Masters, but I’m going in there thinking I can. I’m not being overly optimistic, I’m trying to be reasonably optimistic.”

It wasn’t optimism, though, that caused four of Player’s putts to drop from at least 30 feet. It was feel, Player said.

“I could really feel it coming,” he said. “I emphasize the word feel. It’s touch, it’s all touch.”

Player needed only 27 putts, some of which traveled great distances. On the sixth and again on the seventh, he rolled in 30-foot putts for birdies.

He made another 30-foot birdie on No. 12 and made an even longer one on No. 16--40 feet. He played 10 feet of break on that one.

“It was the best putting round I’ve ever had on the senior tour,” Player said.

There were 38 players in the field of 78 who finished at par or better, taking advantage of fairways softened by rain and friendly greens that held golf balls.

Kiefer said long hitters may have an advantage, but they also have to be able to do something else.

“You still have to hit it straight here,” he said.

Three shots behind Morgan at 65 are George Archer, Jim Colbert, Jay Sigel and Tom Wargo. Tom Shaw, Ben Smith and Masaru Amano are tied at 66.

Golf Notes

Rives McBee shot his first hole in one on the senior tour, acing the 198-yard No. 11 with a two-iron. . . . Bruce Crampton was at four-under par after 13 holes, then went triple-bogey and double-bogey on 14 and 15, finishing at one-over par 71. . . . Defending champion Bruce Devlin had a 75, the same as Dave Eichelberger, who lost to Devlin in a playoff here last year. . . . Jack Kiefer said he probably won’t play as many events as last year, when he played 37 of 38 events. “Late in the year, I was in Zombieland,” Kiefer said.