Doyle Takes Bold Eagles Off Endangered List in 64

Allen Doyle had a pair of eagles to help build a five-stroke lead Thursday after the first round of the Senior Tour Championship at Murrells Inlet, S.C.

Doyle’s eight-under-par 64 put him ahead of a group of six golfers tied for second that included Larry Nelson, trying to complete the Senior Tour’s first $3-million season.

Doyle, seventh on the tour earnings list this season with $1.4 million, bogeyed the first hole at the par-72, 6,840-yard Tournament Players Club of Myrtle Beach.

“It wasn’t a very good start, but I told myself we had 17 more holes and three more rounds,” Doyle said.

Doyle quickly made up the stroke with a birdie on the second hole and, after chipping in from 25 yards for his first eagle on the par-five sixth, was on his way.

Doyle was still two under at the turn before picking up six more strokes on the back nine. Doyle’s second eagle came on a 119-yard sand wedge from the fairway on the par-four 16th. It wasn’t until he saw television replays that Doyle realized he hit the ball past the hole and it spun back in.

He said the last time he made two eagles in the same round was at the Southern Amateur 11 years ago. “That doesn’t happen much,” he said.

Doyle’s 64 was the best opening-round score in the history of the tournament, which has the 31 top money winners on the tour.

Nelson, this year’s top money winner, finished with three birdies to climb into a tie for second with Mike McCullough, John Jacobs, Stewart Ginn, Hubert Green and Jose Maria Canizares.

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Steve Lowery and Frank Lickliter shot bogey-free, eight-under 64s in the opening round of the Southern Farm Bureau Classic at Madison, Miss. Tom Pernice Jr. was one stroke back at 65.