Lietzke takes open round honours

Bruce Lietzke and Glen Oaks seem made for one another.

Lietzke, the only double winner on the Champions Tour this year, shot a 6-under 65 on Friday to take a one-stroke lead in the Allianz Championship.

It was Lietzke's best score yet in the 3-year-old tournament and the seventh time in as many rounds he has shot in the 60s on the course that winds through a residential area west of Iowa's capital city.

"Believe me, I'm capable of shooting over par here, but this is a course I'm real comfortable on," said Lietzke, the leading money-winner on the 50-and-over circuit. "I've got a good feel for this course. I've got a little bit of history behind me."

Don Pooley and David Eger were tied for second at 66. Eger was 7 under through 17 holes, but his chance for the lead disappeared with a double bogey on 18.

Defending champion Bob Gilder and 2001 winner Jim Thorpe, coming off a victory in the Long Island Classic, were in a group at 4 under with Hale Irwin and Tom Kite. Craig Stadler, Ben Crenshaw and Fuzzy Zoeller were another shot back.

Argentina's Luis Carbonetti made a run at the lead after an eagle on the par-4 13th dropped him to 6 under. But he gave those two strokes back with a double bogey on 15, then made two more bogeys to finish with a 69.

Lietzke started with a birdie on No. 1, made accurate approach shots with his irons all day and never had a putt of more than 14 feet for a birdie.

"Today, everything was with me," he said. "That doesn't mean you'll wake up tomorrow and everything will be with you. But today, I had all parts of my game."

His only bad hole was a bogey on 17. He hit the wrong club off the tee, using a utility club instead of a 3-wood, and landed 213 yards from the hole. Then, after chipping to 3 feet, Lietzke said he thought too much about his putt for par.

"I convinced myself it was at least a right lip putt, and then I stood over the putt and was about to make my stroke and just decided it didn't look like it was going to break that much," Lietzke said.

"So I played a little less break and missed it on the low side. I kind of talked myself out of that putt."

Lietzke said that's the kind of thinking he'd rather avoid.

"The less time I use my brain to make decisions, the better I play," he said. "I play by feel."

Eger got into trouble on 18 when his tee shot kicked left into a fairway bunker. His 6-iron from the bunker landed 45 yards short of the green and he didn't get his third shot far enough onto the green, the ball rolling 30 yards back down a hill.

Once on the green, he missed a 10-foot bogey putt.

"It was a bloodbath," Eger said. "I played two poor shots and ended up with a double bogey."

That came after a nice par-saving chip from 60 yards on 17, leaving him with a 2-foot putt to stay 7 under. As the ball was rolling to a stop, Joe Inman's caddie tipped his visor to salute the shot and a fan gushed, "Who is this guy?"

"That's a wonderful start," Eger said. "If you would have asked if I'd take 66 when we started on the first tee, I'm sure I would have said yes."

Pooley, continuing a comeback from shoulder surgery in January, knocked in a 50-foot putt for birdie on No. 5 after missing a 5-footer for par on the previous hole.

"That was a big turnaround for me," said Pooley, who was bogey-free the rest of the day.

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