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Kite leads after record
round
Tom Kite had two eagles
in a course-record 9-under-par 63 Friday to take a three-stroke lead in the Senior
PGA Tour's season-opening MasterCard Championship.
Kite, who eagled Nos. 4
and 7 and added five birdies in the bogey-free round, hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation
on the Hualalai Golf Club course.
``When you're hitting that
many greens, you're going to shoot a reasonably good score,'' he said. ``I've
been working hard on my putting, and I putted very well. I made some real nice
putts.''
Kite said the record-setting
round was surprising, considering the shifting wind and that he didn't touch a
club for nearly a month during the offseason.
``It's nice to come back
refreshed, enthusiastic and excited about playing golf, but there's some payback,''
he said. ``The golf swing is not where you want it to be, and the inconsistency
is there. I guess that's probably why the round was so surprising.
``There was no real room
for optimism coming out here other than it's early in the year and who knows what's
going to happen.''
Defending champion Larry
Nelson opened with a 66.
``It's good to get off to
a good start, you can't win the tournament on Friday,'' Nelson said. ``But it's
always good to have a chance.''
Doug Tewell, who had a hole-in-one,
was another stroke back along with Bob Gilder and Jim Colbert in the tournament
limited to tour winners in the last two years and major champions in the last
five.
Tewell's ace, the tournament's
first, came on the 208-yard eighth hole. He used a 4-iron to bend the shot right
to left and the ball rolled 15 feet into the hole.
``That's No. 11, everyone
one of them on tour,'' Tewell said. ``I never made one anywhere else. I never
made one practicing, never made one in college.''
Only nine of the 33 players
failed to break par.
``I think (the wind) caught
everybody by surprise,'' Kite said. ``Certainly the scoring we saw was because
the wind changed.''
Walter Hall, Dave Eichelberger,
Bruce Fleisher, Bruce Lietzke and Bobby Wadkins opened with 68s.
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