Five Leaders Conquer Tricky Greens

At first look, the course at Newport Beach Country Club wouldn’t seem to be very tough for professional golfers. At 6,598 yards, it’s relatively short, and although trees line all the fairways, it’s not overly tight.

“I think the first time you play this golf course,” said John Schroeder, whose three-under 68 put him in a five-way tie for the lead after the first round Friday at the Toshiba Senior Classic, “you might say it’s a Mickey Mouse course with all these short holes, but if you do that, it can come up and bite you.”

It didn’t exactly chew up the field Friday, but no one mastered the course despite near-perfect weather and greens that had been softened by rain this week.

“We’re lucky the greens were soft,” said Lee Trevino, who also shot 68. “If the greens weren’t as soft as they are, we’d be shooting a lot higher.”

Bob Murphy, Jim Colbert, Homero Blancas are tied with Trevino and Schroeder. Eight players, including Al Geiberger and Jim Dent, shot 69, one stroke off the lead, and nine shot 70, including defending champion George Archer, Dave Stockton, who tied for second last year, and Walt Morgan, who won two weeks ago at Ojai.

“I thought the scores would be lower,” Schroeder said, “but once you get out there, you know why. The greens are tricky and subtle.”

Schroeder helped himself by talking to Danny Bibb, a multiple winner of the Newport Beach club championship. Bibb, now a member at nearby Big Canyon, went hole by hole with Schroeder before the round, and Schroeder responded by with three birdies--on putts of 20, 15 and four feet--and no bogeys. “He gave me a different perception on how to play the course,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder, a Senior PGA Tour rookie who played from 1969 to ’82 on the regular tour, collected the best paycheck of his career ($43,200) when he finished fourth at Ojai. He was helped there by a brief putting lesson and a borrowed putter from Dave Stockton.

Schroeder is still using the putter. “He says it’s borrowed, I say it’s mine,” Schroeder said. “But I bought four more just in case.”

Trevino also was helped by his course knowledge, gained by playing a second day in the pro-am. He played the front nine even, then made four birdies and one bogey on the back.

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 made his only bogey on par-four 16th after hitting his approach shot from the rough into a bunker.

He missed a four-foot birdie putt on 17 but hit a seven-iron to within six inches on 18. He was 128 yards out and said he would normally hit a nine-iron but because of the wind used the seven.

To hear Murphy tell it, such short putts will be the only sure thing this weekend.

“The greens are difficult,” he 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, came closest to low numbers, twice reaching four under. 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 of them late in his round.

Like Schroeder, Colbert didn’t make a bogey Friday. Colbert, last year’s leading senior money winner, said putting in Southern California is tricky in general because of the prevalence of poa annua grass on greens. Colbert made birdie putts of 10, 25 and 20 feet.

“I wouldn’t say I putt great in California,” Colbert said, “since I’ve probably played 125 tournaments here on the regular circuit and close to 30 on the senior circuit and I’ve never won one.

“This would be the first. I feel like I’d better get busy.”

Chi Chi Rodriguez and Isao Aoki are at one-under 70. Hale Irwin and J.C. Snead had 71s.