|
Harris Is Hot:
Fires A 9-under 62 For 1st-Round
Lead At The SBC |
October
21, 2005 - San Antonio: John
Harris is not exactly sure what happened on Friday, but
he'll take it. Harris shot a 62 to take the first-round lead
at the SBC Championship at
Oak Hills CC in San Antonio. His 9-under matched the
course record previously achieved by SA local David Ogrin
and Bob Estes during the Texas Open in 1994 and last year by
Gil Morgan at the SBC.
Harris, who is
from and still lives in Minnesota, had two bogeys combined
with nine birdies and an eagle on number 10. Looking a
little shell-shocked from his days' performance, Harris
commented that there are no "off days" on the Champions Tour.
"This Tour never has an off day. Somebody shoots 8-9
under every day," Harris said. "Somebody will shoot 8-9
under Saturday, somebody will shoot it Sunday. I'm just glad
I did it today."
Gil Morgan, who has sole possession of 2nd place at the
moment, held the lead briefly with his 7-under 64
today and four other players are tied for 3rd at 6-under
including last year's SBC Championship winner
Mark McNulty who also won last week at the
Administaff Small Business Classic in Houston.
Morgan was paired with McNulty and Dave Stockton today. When
asked if playing with last year's SBC's Champ affected his
play his response was "sure it does". "Mark is great putter
and iron player. He keeps it in play. He's an International player and I knew today that I needed to play hard
just to keep up." Last year Morgan shot an opening round 77
then followed it up with a 62 on day two. He commented he's
trying remember more about round-two last year and put the
round-one debacle of 2004 out of mind.
Look's like they are going low this year at the SBC
Championship. Stay tuned....
-----
notes:
>Morgan and McNulty, who have played Oak Hills
multiple times at both the Champions Tour event and at the
Texas Open when it was held here, both commented that the
course was in the best shape they have ever seen it play.
Hat's off to Oak Hills Golf
Course Superintendent Craig Felton and crew for a job
well done as well as to Director of Golf Bryan Gathright and
team for being "spot-on", (as McNulty would say), as the
host course. With the great
condition of the golf course and the fantastic weather on
Friday....we'll give the golf environment at Oak Hills on
day-one a big Olympic "10".
>They are going off on split-tees this year with half the
field starting on hole one and the other half on ten.
Depending on who you believe, some say it is to accommodate
the "later in the year" date for the tourney which means an
earlier sunset. Others say it's being done to better
accommodate a TV schedule that's up against the NFL and the
World Series. Regardless of the reason, what it means is
that the day's play is over now at about 5:30PM instead of the
7:00PM seen in years past.
>Des
Smyth fell ill and withdrew Friday and was replaced by
first alternate
Dick Mast.
>We saw Fuzzy today. He
was in rare form, or should we say he was being his usual
jovial self.
Paired today with Raymond Floyd and Hubert Green, when
Hubert, who escaped a cancer scare not too long ago,
complained that he was "not playing too much golf these days"
the Fuzz-Man responded with basically a "hush up Hubert",
"you've got your name on your bag and your playing on the
Champions Tour. It's not all bad." If you want to see some
great golf and be entertained at the same time, just follow
Fuzzy Zoeller....trust us.
>You want to see some
great action at Oak Hills? Just camp out at the greens for #9 or
#18. They are running great and the putts are falling. Like
birdies? Go with #9.
>Monday qualifiers R.W.
Eaks and Rod Spittle shot a 73 and 68 respectably
>How local favorites faired: Bill Rogers>1-over 72. Chuck
Westergard>3-over 75
>Final observation: We
love to see the flat-bellies on the regular tour hit em'.
Having said that, The Champions on the Champions Tour are
just hard to beat when it comes to being fan-friendly,
keeping the tourney at such a laid-back level, making it fun
for all involved, and at the same time playing some
lights-out golf like the Champions that they are. As the
commercial states....
"These Guys Are Good." Believe it.
