ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Jay Haas withstood wet, bone-chilling and eventually windy conditions by shooting the only sub-par round Thursday to take the lead at the Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill.
Wearing a heavy wind-breaker buttoned to his neck, Haas finished the first round with a 1-under 69 to hold a one-shot lead over local favorite Jeff Sluman and New Jersey golf pro Bill Britton. There’s a group of nine, including Bernhard Langer, Scott Hoch and Ian Woosnam, two shots off the lead at 71.
Greg Norman, setting aside his many business ventures to make a rare competitive appearance, shot 72 in only his fourth tournament this year to sit in a nine-way tie in a group that includes defending Senior PGA champion Denis Watson.
Oak Hill’s East Course lived up to its stingy reputation with help from the elements once the $2 million tournament got under way. The course gave up only one eagle when Britton carded a 2 on the par 4 No. 16.
Haas was part of the morning groups that faced a light drizzle and temperatures in the low 40s. Things didn’t improve much by noon, when temperatures shot into the relatively balmy 50s. Trouble was, once the sun poked through the gray clouds, the winds also followed, gusting above 20-mph to create additional havoc on the narrow fairways.
Haas, attempting to win his second Senior PGA in three years, got as low as 3-under with a birdie at the par-5 No. 13. But he was undone by two bogeys that followed errant tee shots — one that landed behind a tree on No. 16, and one into the lip of a fairway bunker on No. 18.
Haas has now shot 1-under in each of his past three rounds at Oak Hill, dating to the final two rounds of the 2003 PGA Championship in which he finished in a tie for fifth. He, along with Sluman, Langer and Norman, now get what should be the benefit of playing Friday afternoon, when the temperature is forecast to break 60.
Britton made the best run Thursday afternoon, getting to 2-under through 14, before being undone by a pair of bogeys. He’s a former PGA Tour member, whose lone win came at the 1989 Centel Classic. In 1990, he finished fourth at the PGA Championship at Shoal Creek and seventh at The Masters.
Sluman, who grew up in suburban Rochester, played in a group with Norman and Fuzzy Zoeller, and attracted the largest galleries of the day.
Sluman blamed nerves for getting off to a poor start in which he posted three bogeys over the first 9 holes. But he found his composure to post three birdies to go a first-day best 3-under 32 over the back 9.
Norman, meanwhile, doesn’t look like someone ready to give up golf altogether in favor of tennis now that he’s taken up the sport following his engagement to former tennis star Chris Evert.
Long and straight off the tee and sharp off the fairways, Norman was enjoying an efficient round before bogeying each of the final two holes.
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