Morgan takes opening round honours

Gil Morgan closed with a pair of birdies for a 7-under 65 Friday to take a one-stroke lead over Larry Nelson, Jerry McGee and Bruce Summerhays in the first round of the Kroger Classic.

Nelson missed a chance to tie for the lead when his 30-foot birdie putt burned the edge of the cup on 18. He already had the 553-yard, par-5 eighth, as did Jim Thorpe, who was alone in fifth at 67.

Seven players were tied at 68.

Altogether, 48 players in the 81-golfer field shot better than par 72 over the 7,064-yard Tournament Players Course, where the "lift, clean, replace" rule was in effect because of heavy rains earlier this week.

Last year, with hard fairways and greens, 37 players broke par the first day.

"It wouldn't have been any fun if we didn't play 'clean and place,"' Nelson said. "It's nothing but luck if you have to play ... you could have half an inch of mud on the ball."

The course received 5½ inches of rain earlier this week course superintendent Dave Faucher said.

"Being able to move the ball makes a difference, but they definitely made the right decision," McGee said. "There was mud on the ball every shot."

Morgan, who had five birdies on the back nine, called the soft fairways "fairly receptive" and the greens "very receptive."

"I was close to the hole quite a bit, especially on the back nine," Morgan said. "I didn't have many long putts.

"I hit a lot of balls right at the hole. I had enough confidence that I didn't mind going for the pin."

Morgan had seven birdies without a bogey, and was so accurate with his irons that he had four other birdie chances.

"I did leave a few out there," Morgan said. "I had a chance at Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 7. I was inside 12 feet all those times and didn't make any of those."

Morgan is still pursuing his first win this year on the Champions Tour, where there have been 22 different winners in 24 events. Only Bruce Lietzke and Tom Watson -- both of whom passed up the Kroger -- have won twice.

Nelson made his run by finishing the front nine with three birdies and an eagle.

"I haven't made a putt outside of 12 feet in six weeks," said Nelson, who sank a 15-footer for his eagle. "I decided I wasn't going to 'hit' any of my putts today. I was going to just 'stroke' them."

Thorpe overreached a bit when he went for his second eagle of the day, although it would have given him a share of the lead.

On the par-5, 548-yard 18th, Thorpe hit what he called a "monster" tee shot that left him 245 yards from the green, and muscled a fairway wood toward the flag.

"I tried to launch it," Thorpe said. "I nailed it. I thought it was absolutely perfect."

But the ball caught a tree on the right side of the fairway, fell into a hazard, and Thorpe had to scramble to save par.

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