Stankowski Stands Firm Against Wind

Paul Stankowski pushed steadily through rising winds for a six-under-par 66 Thursday that gave him a one-stroke lead over seven golfers in the first round of the $3.4-million Compaq Classic at New Orleans.

Stankowski had seven birdies in afternoon gusts that reached 20 mph. Steve Hart and Glen Day were the only golfers in the group tied for second that played in the afternoon. The others, including defending champion Carlos Franco, played in more manageable conditions with winds about 10 mph.

Stankowski bogeyed his final hole on the 7,116-yard English Turn Golf and Country Club.

“Yesterday, I made nine birdies in the pro-am and it was windy,” Stankowski said. “So I came out here today and it was windy and I thought, ‘Well, birdies can be made here in the wind.’ ”

Stankowski felt it was a continuation of last week’s Houston Open, during which he followed a third-round 78 with a 65 on Sunday--one of three sub-70 rounds. Six of his last nine rounds have been under par.

“You always make mistakes out here,” Stankowski said. “It’s just that when I made them last week they were all in the wrong places. Today they were in the right places. It’s a game of misses, we all know that. Whoever misses it best out here is going to win.”

The others at 67 were Scott McCarron, Ernie Els, Bob Burns and K.J. Choi.

Els, Choi and Day were the only players to post bogey-free rounds.

Masters champion Vijay Singh was in a group of eight at 68, and 17 players were at 69. Jack Nicklaus led a group of 14 at 70.

Franco, on the strength of his “happy putter,” offset two bogeys with seven birdies and needed only 28 putts.

“My putter is coming again,” Franco said. “For a long time, the last 10 months, it’s sometimes miss, miss, miss, many, many times miss. But now I’m a little more confident. It’s more happy now.”

McCarron, who won at New Orleans in 1996 after switching to a new driver, played with a new set of irons.

“I had a lot of good feelings stepping on the first tee,” McCarron said. “I got off to a good start, birdied the first hole, and I put a new set of irons in my bag this week for the first time since 1991.”

McCarron combined an eagle on No. 6, a par five, with four birdies and a bogey to match his best opening-round score this year.

*

Sherri Steinhauer, who used to play the Onion Creek Club as a student at the University of Texas in the early 1980s, and Sherri Turner, a 16-year pro who hasn’t won since 1989, each shot a five-under 65 to share the first-round lead at the Philips Invitational in Austin.

Wendy Ward and Cindy Figg-Currier, who live in Austin and occasionally play the 6,101-yard course, and Michele Redman, were two strokes back.

“Back in college, I used to love to come out here and play,” Steinhauer said after a round that included six birdies. “It seems like I really like the back nine.”

Actually, Steinhauer split her six birdies on the front and back nines.

“The best part of my game today was my putter. The greens were a little tricky,” said Steinhauer, who started the tournament ranked second on the tour in birdies.

Turner won the 1988 LPGA Championship but recorded her last victory at the 1989 Hawaiian Ladies Open. She began her round with three birdies.

She broke the string with a bogey on No. 4 before moving to four under with birdies on Nos. 12 and 15. After missing a five-footer for bogey on 16, she recovered to finish the round with two birdies for a share of the lead.

The event is a tribute to former Austin resident Harvey Penick, considered one of golf’s greatest instructors. Penick died in 1995.