Quigley leads in the wind with 69

Dana Quigley was simply trying to stay out of trouble in the first round of the Audi Senior Classic. He ended up at the top of the leaderboard.

Quigley shot a 3-under-par 69 in shifting wind conditions Friday to take a one-stroke lead over Walter Hall.

``I'm extremely happy with 3-under par,'' Quigley said. ``The plan was to just keep it close to par because I knew the scores wouldn't be too low at this course.''

Only seven players in the 78-man field broke par on the Chapultepec Golf Club course, a demanding tree-lined layout that stretches to 7,119 yards at an altitude of 7,800 feet.

``The wind was tricky. It seemed like three different days out there,'' said Quigley, a five-time senior winner who has three top-10 finishes in four starts this year.

The scoring average was 75.295, the highest first-round average since last year's U.S. Senior Open (76.622).

Quigley, playing in his 157th consecutive tournament and the 171st straight event for which he has been eligible, got to 2 under with a 5-foot birdie putt on the 554-yard, par-5 15th and closed with a 20-feet birdie putt on the 388-yard, par-4 18th.

``That was a good way to finish,'' Quigley said. ``We've never played here before so I really didn't know what to expect. The greens were a little difficult to putt. This golf course is very much like the ones I grew up on in New England.''

Hall, the 2001 AT&T Canada Senior Open winner, birdied the final two holes, holing 8- and 6-foot putts.

``The conditions were good, but it got a little windy in the middle of the round,'' Hall said. ``It was OK the last few holes. ... You can't attack this course. You have to keep it in the fairways, and the greens are very difficult.''

Hubert Green, the 2000 winner, was two strokes back at 71 along with Ed Dougherty, Jim Colbert, Lon Hinkle and Rodger Davis.

Bruce Fleisher topped an eight-player group at 72, and Hale Irwin, JohnJacobs and defending champion Mike McCullough were another stroke back at 73.

Divots

Jim Simons, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, shot a 6-over 78 in his Senior PGA Tour debut. ... Victor Garcia, Sergio's father, also opened witha 78.

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