Soft Greens Lead to Low Scores at Newport Beach

Lee Trevino, Bob Murphy, Jim Colbert, Homero Blancas and John Schroeder were tied for the lead at three-under-par 68 Friday after the first round of the Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport Beach Country Club.

Rain earlier in the week softened the greens on the 6,598-yard layout and 22 golfers were under par, but no one mastered the course.

“We’re lucky the greens were soft,” Trevino said. “ If the greens weren’t as soft as they are, we’d be shooting a lot higher.”

Eight players were at 69, and nine at 70.

The tournament was played at Mesa Verde in Costa Mesa last year before moving to Newport Beach for the first time. Trevino said his extra day playing in a pro-am helped him become familiar with the course.

Murphy, who finished in the top 10 in the first five events of the year before sitting out at Ojai because of a bad hip, continued to play well. He took his only bogey on par-four 16th after hitting his approach shot from the rough into a bunker.

“The greens are difficult,” Murphy said. “That’s the only way to say it. I think it’s one of those weeks of patience, because you are going to miss some putts that you hit absolutely just like you want to.

“I made a couple of those all-important three- or four-footers for pars, which is going to be the tale of the tournament. The greens are bouncy.”

Blancas, who won his only senior event in 1989, reached four under twice. He made seven birdies, including a chip-in on the first hole and a 75-yard pitch from the rough on the 12th. But he came back to the field with four bogeys, two late in his round.

Schroeder, a Senior PGA Tour rookie, played a bogey-free round and said he helped himself by talking to a local resident who was a multiple club champion on this course. “I thought the scores would be lower,” Schroeder said, “but once you get out there, you know why. The greens are tricky and subtle.”

Colbert, last season’s leading money winner, did not make a bogey and made birdie putts of 10, 25 and 20 feet.