Pair of eagles lifts leader to top of board
Associated Press
Senior Tour: MURRELLS INLET, S.C. (Nov. 2) -- Allen Doyle had a pair of eagles to help build a 5-stroke lead Thursday after the first round of the Senior Tour Championship.
Doyle's 8-under 64 put him ahead of a group of six golfers tied for second that included Larry Nelson, trying to complete the Senior Tour's first $3 million season.
Doyle, seventh on the tour earnings list this season with $1.4 million, bogeyed the first hole at the par-72, 6,840-yard Tournament Players Club of Myrtle Beach.
"It wasn't a very good start but I told myself we had 17 more holes and three more rounds," Doyle said.
Doyle quickly made up the stroke with a birdie on the second hole and, after chipping in from 25 yards out for his first eagle on the par-5 sixth, was on his way.
Doyle was still 2-under at the turn before picking up six more strokes on the back nine. Doyle's second eagle came on a 119-yard sand wedge from the fairway on the par-4 16th. It wasn't until he saw television replays that Doyle realized he hit the ball past the hole and it spun back in.
The 31 top money winners on the tour played under a bright sun with temperatures in the 70s. Doyle's 64 was the best opening round score in the history of the tournament but he said he was not about to relax.
"There's way too much golf to play," he said. "The par-5s out there -- if you drive it good and you hit some good second shots, you can make some things happen. I was very surprised the scores were not lower."
Doyle said the last time he made two eagles in the same round was at the Southern Amateur 11 years ago. "That doesn't happen much," he said.
Nelson, this year's top money winner, was even through the 15th, but finished with three straight birdies to climb back into a tie for second with Mike McCullough, John Jacobs, Stewart Ginn, Hubert Green and Jose Maria Canizares.
"Today was a kind of rope-a-dope kind of day," said Nelson who needs a victory to become the first player in tour history to earn $3 million in a season.
It's the first time the tournament is being played on the course and Nelson said the scores may drop as players become more familiar with it.
"You really just have to see how the golf course is playing," he said. "I think it will get a little bit easier, even if you hit the ball tomorrow as I hit it today."
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