Murphy Feeling His Way Back

Bob Murphy doesn’t feel comfortable with his golf game, and that’s usually not a good thing on the Senior PGA Tour. But in the first round of the Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport Beach Country Club on Friday, Murphy compensated well, shooting six-under-par 65 to share the lead with David Graham and J.C. Snead.

Murphy won at least two events in each of his first four years on the senior tour, but the first two months of 1997 have been a struggle. Although he finished second last month at the LG Championship in Naples, Fla., he couldn’t break into the top 20 in four other events.

The trouble started, Murphy said, in December when he had surgery to remove skin cancer on his right index finger. “I came out of there with a divot in my hand,” he said. “It was marked Ground Under Repair for five weeks.”

When he started to practice again, the bandage bothered him and soon his swing was out of kilter. “I know what I do when I play well,” Murphy said. “Right now, I’m just not duplicating it enough times. I find myself standing behind the ball thinking about my swing too much, but it’s mandatory because I’m not settling in as comfortably as I should.”

But Friday he settled into the lead just fine. Telling himself to swing as easily as possible, Murphy didn’t make many mistakes over the 6,598-yard course.

He got birdies on the second, third and fourth holes and finished with three more in the last four holes of his bogey-free round.

Snead and Graham also were able to string together enough good shots to lead 25 players who broke par on the hot, breezy day. The leaders don’t have much breathing room. Bruce Crampton made a late run, with birdies on three of the last five holes, and is one shot behind. Bob Eastwood shot 67 and Isao Aoki, Lee Trevino, Bob Charles and Leonard Thompson each shot 68. Nine players, including Gil Morgan and Gary Player, shot 69.

It was another tough day for putting, something the players have grown accustomed to in the two years this tournament has been played at Newport Beach.

Graham had a solution to Newport Beach’s bumpy greens. On the par-four second hole, he sank a wedge from 108 yards for an eagle. It took him three putts to finish from 30 feet on the fourth green, but he made birdie putts of 20, 10 and 20 feet to get to four under.

“I’m sure you’ve heard it’s hard to make long putts on these greens,” Graham said. “So I felt like my quota of long putts was absorbed in the first nine holes.”

Snead got into contention with birdies on Nos. 8, 9, 10 and 11. He had two more birdies and didn’t have a bogey. It was a seven-shot improvement over his best round here last year, when he finished four over in a tie for 50th.

“I think I only made one birdie for the tournament last year,” Snead said. “If you’re not putting well, the ball bounces all over the place. You get afraid of the putts and then you can’t make anything. Last year, I couldn’t make one from a foot.

“Here we are and the greens are almost like they were last year and the ball goes in the hole. A lot has to do with attitude.”