With a nothing-to-lose-but-his-PGA-Tour-card
attitude, Russ Cochran shot an 8-under-par 64 today to take the first-round lead
in the Southern Farm Bureau Classic.
Cochran, 137th on the money list and needing a solid performance in his final
event of year to retain his playing privileges, responded with his best round
of the year, a bogey-free effort that included birdies on five of his last seven
holes.
"I've
kind of had an aggressive attitude from the start, knowing what I need to do is
to make some money," Cochran said. "Let's face it, I don't have anything to lose.
I'm in a situation where I need to get after it a little bit."
Brad Bryant, a 22-year veteran who is retiring after this week, and Chris DiMarco
were a stroke back and Nolan Henke was at 6-under 66.
Soon after his morning round, Cochran caught a flight to Florida for Payne Stewart's
memorial service Friday. About 40 other players in the Southern Farm Bureau field
also planned to make the trip in honor of the U.S. Open champion killed Monday
in a plane crash.
Like the Tour Championship in Houston, the Southern Farm Bureau will suspend play
Friday. The second round and the cut at Annandale Golf Club will be made Saturday,
and the final round of the event, shortened to 54 holes, is Sunday.
"Payne deserves to have a day
taken off for him. ... He was a total ambassador for the game," DiMarco said.
"Tomorrow will be a pretty somber day for everyone."
After a somewhat mundane 1-under start through seven holes, Cochran got on a roll
with a 5-foot birdie putt after a 9-iron approach to the 409-yard 17th hole. Instead
of going for the water-protected green at the 532-yard 18th, he laid up onto the
peninsula and then stuck his sand wedge to 2 feet for another birdie.
"I saved par two or three times,
and that kind of seemed to keep the round glued together. Then I ran the table
on the front because I putted real well," said Cochran, who in 1982 won the Deposit
Guaranty Golf Classic, the predecessor to Southern Farm Bureau that then wasn't
an official win.
Cochran, in his 18th year on the PGA Tour, turns 41 on Sunday.
Bryant began his final tournament with birdies on half of the holes, but bogeys
on both of his back-side par-3s kept him out of the lead.
After his first bogey at the 213-yard second hole dropped him to 3-under par,
Bryant had three straight birdies. At the 522-yard fifth hole, he pushed his tee
shot into trees on the right, but punched back into the fairway and then rolled
in a 20-foot birdie putt after a 9-iron approach shot.
"I
made a couple of birdies that I didn't think I even had a prayer of making. I
had a couple of pretty significantly long putts for me," Bryant said. "And I hit
a lot of good iron shots, like I used to back when I was a good player."
Following a bogey at the
209-yard eighth hole after he found a greenside bunker, Bryant finished his round
with a 6-iron approach to 4 feet for another birdie.
Playing this season through a special medical exemption, Bryant has made just
three of 17 cuts this season after missing 1998 with a back injury. The degenerative
disk in his back is only one of the reasons he is retiring.
"My
sons are 6 and 8. I'm a Tiger Cub den leader for five first-graders, so I figure
I'm going to need some extra time," Bryant said. "And I'm 45 and too fat. I just
am ready to be at home with my family. I just don't want to travel anymore."
Bryant, who had top-10
finishes in the Players Championship in 1982 and 1995 and was third in the 1994
Tour Championship, has won more than $3.4 million in his career. His only victory
was in the 1995 Disney.
