Eastwood Rolls Into Senior Lead

Bob Eastwood credits his new putter and a renewed commitment to fitness for helping him to the first-round lead Friday in the Royal Caribbean Classic.

The 54-year-old from Stephenville, Texas, collected 14 points in the Senior PGA Tour event and holds a three-point advantage over Andy North and Rex Caldwell.

“I’m swinging it a lot better,” Eastwood said. “I feel stronger. My alignment is better. I feel like I’m rolling the ball better this year.”

The three-day tournament at Crandon Park Golf Course at Key Biscayne, Fla., is using a Modified Stableford scoring system. The format gives eight points for a double eagle, five for an eagle, two for a birdie, no points for a par, minus-one point for a bogey, and double bogey or worse is minus-three points.

Eastwood is working out more on the road and at home. He prepared for the Royal Caribbean by spending a week practicing in Jacksonville, Fla.

Eastwood, who has been on the Senior PGA Tour since 1996, had eight birdies.

“The new putter really looks good when I set it down,” he said. “Wednesday afternoon they fixed up the angles on the putter just right. I hope it keeps going. I’m ready to win again.”

Tom Kite, who has eight points, had the only eagle of the round. It came on the 10th hole, a 533-yard par five.

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The top 50 players in the world rankings on May 1 will be fully exempt into the U.S. Open, the U.S. Golf Assn.’s executive committee ruled.

Before, only the top 20 players from the previous year’s rankings were fully exempt.

The Open will be held June 14-17 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla.

The committee also voted to add exemption categories for the top two money leaders from the Japan PGA and the PGA Tour Australasia, if they are ranked among the top 75 in the world.

The USGA also raised the purses for its three Open championships, increasing the U.S. Open purse by $500,000 to $5 million, the U.S. Women’s Open purse by $150,000 to $2.90 million, and U.S. Senior Open purse by $150,000 to $2.4 million.

The women’s committee voted to change its exemption category for the U.S. Women’s Open to include the past five winners of the Women’s British Open, and the top two players on the Ladies European Tour money list.

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Phoenix Open officials accepted a written apology from the 15-year-old golf fan who rolled an orange across a green while Tiger Woods was preparing to putt.

“We will recommend that he be required to do a significant amount of community service for some of our tournament charities,” chairman John Perkinson said.

The youth, an honor student at a high school not far from the suburban Scottsdale course, wrote that he tossed the orange on a dare.