Five top crowded leaderboard

Defending champion Gil Morgan, coming off a victory last week, shot a 4-under-par 66 in windy conditions today for a share of the lead in the Kroger Senior Classic.

``It was pretty tough today,'' Morgan said. ``There were a lot of cross winds, which is always a factor. The weather made the course play a lot longer.''

Morgan won the rain-shortened Comfort Classic last week in Indianapolis, for his third victory of the year, and 18th in five seasons on the Senior PGA Tour.

Hubert Green, Jim Thorpe, Fred Gibson and Mike McCullough also opened with 66s on The Golf Center at Kings Island's Grizzly Course.

Larry Nelson, who shot a 58 in the pro-am round Thursday, shot a 70 to end his streak of 20 sub-par rounds.

Bruce Fleisher, the 1999 senior player of the year who leads the money list with $2,085,406, shot a 71. Three-time U.S. Open winner Hale Irwin was another stroke back at 72.

Green was 6 under through 12 holes, but fell back with bogeys on Nos. 13 and 14. He made a 30-foot eagle putt on the 518-yard, par-5 fourth hole.

``I got lucky on No. 4,'' he said. ``I don't make a lot of eagles. ... I think I played pretty good overall. I was putting better than I have been. I made a couple of changes in the last couple of days, and it has helped my stroke overall.''

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