Sixty-four-year-old
Jimmy Powell eagled the 18th hole at The Golf Center for a 4-under 66 today to
share the first-round lead with Jim Colbert in the $1.4 million Kroger Senior
Classic.
Nobody
over 63 ever has won a Senior PGA Tour event, but Powell is the only player to
win twice since turning 60. He won the First of America Classic in 1995 when he
was 60, and the Brickyard Crossing Championship in 1996 at 61.
Powell used a driver and six wood to reach the 546-yard, par-5 18th, then rolled
in a 10-foot putt.
"I
have been playing well for two or three months, until my putting left me," Powell
said. "But I putted well today."
Powell said the summer-long drought in southwest Ohio has made the usually friendly
Grizzly Course much more difficult.
"It's
playing tough, especially if you miss the greens," Powell said. "The greens are
the fastest we've played all year. Last week in Dallas was probably the slowest;
everybody is having trouble with the greens."
Colbert got off to a good start by taking advantage of a break on the first hole
where he stroked his 30-foot putt too hard. But it hit the back of the hole, jumped
up and dropped into the cup.
"There's
no in-between here," Colbert said. "When it plays hard and fast, like it does
now, it's all the golf course you can play.
"When
it's soft and wet, like it has been many times here, it plays longer but it plays
easier."
Hale Irwin,
the leading money winner on the Senior Tour, was among five players one shot behind
the leaders. Tied at 67 with Irwin were Gil Morgan, David Graham, John Bland and
Mike McCullough.
Fan favorite Lee Trevino, who had not played here since 1995, was among 11 players
at 68. Defending champion Hugh Baiocchi, who won a five-way playoff when Sunday's
round was rained out last year, joined nine other players at 69.
Morgan, No. 5 on the money list with $1.2 in earnings this year, predicted that
the winning score wouldn't be close to the 195 that Jay Sigel posted in 1997.
Although Morgan birdied
the last two holes, he said the dryness of the 6,639-yard course made club selection
difficult.
"I'm
not good at figuring out what the course is going to do," Morgan said. "The fairways
are fairly fast, and I had difficulty judging the speed of some putts; I left
some a little short."
He solved that problem at 17 and 18 by hitting his approach within three feet
and one foot of the hole.
"The
green speed wasn't too critical at that distance," Morgan said.
