Seniors Get a Lift, Then They Clean Up

Whenever Jim Thorpe’s ball landed in a fairway, he picked it up, wiped it off and set it on a perfect perch somewhere in the vicinity of where it had landed.

And he didn’t need to look around to make sure no one saw him.

Because fairways were muddy, a lift-clean-and-place rule was approved before the first round of the 54-hole SBC Senior Classic on Friday at Valencia Country Club.

By his count, Thorpe hit about 35 tee shots on his way to a 66, which left him one stroke behind co-leaders Bob Charles and Jose Maria Canizares.

“I teed it up every time on some good turf,” Thorpe said. “I stayed on the fairways and used it to my advantage.”

Officials tested the course early in the morning and determined that players would be allowed to move any ball on a fairway up to one club length, no closer to the hole.

Part of the reason, according to Senior Tour tournament director Bruce Sudderth, was that rain was projected.

“It turned out great,” Thorpe said. “The weather was clear and the course was excellent.”

Actually, it did rain--birdies and eagles.

Thirty players in the field of 78 broke par on the 6,905-yard layout. The par-72 course is several hundred yards longer than the norm for seniors, yet five players shot 67s and five shot 68s.

Lift, clean and place might be a duffer’s dream, but senior players hold sharply disparate opinions about it.

Hale Irwin, who shot 67, wants it stricken from the rule book.

“I concentrate better when the ball is not in my hand,” he said. “The course is playing very, very nicely. I hope we don’t need that rule over the weekend. I’ve never been a proponent of it.”

Charles, who shot his lowest round in two years, loves it.

“I think we should lift, clean and place every day,” he said. “I’d hate to think what the scores would be, had we played down and dirty. If they don’t allow placing the next two days, there is no reward for hitting a fairway.”

Canizares is in such a zone it wouldn’t matter if the ball were knee-deep in mud. He’d knock it five feet from the pin anyway.

The Spaniard, fresh off his first senior victory last week at the Toshiba Classic in Newport Beach, blistered the front side, firing a 30. He made an eagle on the first hole and birdies on four of the next six.

His arthritis kicked in on the back nine or he might have lifted, cleaned and placed the tournament trophy in the trunk of his car with two rounds to play.

“My confidence is good,” he said. “I’m much more relaxed. It’s never easy to win, but maybe the door is a little more open.”

With scores low, at least half the field left believing the door is ajar.

“If the weather holds up, the scores will stay low,” said Bruce Fleisher, who shot 67. “The greens are very true and the ball rolls nicely at a speed we are comfortable with.”

And when players can create their own quasi-tee shots on fairways, the only worry is too much of a good thing.

“When you really tee it up with an eight, nine or a wedge, you get too much spin and the ball can back off the green,” Fleisher said.

That happened to Thorpe on 18. But he scrambled for par and said he’ll gladly take the trade-off.

“I think officials made the right decision,” he said. “They can’t control the weather. If the course dries out and we can’t move the ball, scores will go up.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

In Front

at Valencia Country Club

18 Holes

Bob Charles: 33-32--65 -7

Jose Maria Canizares: 30-35--65 -7

Jim Thorpe: 34-32--66 -6

Bruce Fleisher: 32-35--67 -5

Hale Irwin: 34-33--67 -5

Ed Dougherty: 36-31--67 -5

Jim Colbert: 33-34--67 -5

Bob Eastwood: 33-34--67 -5

* COMPLETE SCORES: D12