Fleisher and Thompson two shots back
Senior PGA—Mercedes Championship, HUALALAI, Hawaii (Jan. 19) -- Fred Gibson matched the course record with an 8-under 64 on Friday to take the first-round lead in the MasterCard Championship. Bruce Fleisher and Leonard Thompson shot 66s on the 7,053-yard Hualalai Golf Club course, and Larry Nelson, Jim Thorpe and Dave Eichelberger opened with 67s.Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Gary McCord and Ed Dougherty had 68s, and Hale Irwin, David Graham and Allen Doyle shot 69s. Defending champion George Archer was last in the 32-man field at 77.Gibson, who gained entry to the invitation-only 54-hole tournament by winning the Vantage Championship, said his round could have been even better. He ran off nine birdies, stumbling only on the 425-yard ninth hole."I had 215 to the hole, and I don't have a 215 club into the wind," Gibson said his play on the ninth, his final hole of the day."I pulled it. I put it where I couldn't get to it. I could have made a 6 there just as easy. Bad lie, deep grass. Then I probably hit a perfect shot and I still had a 20-footer (for the bogey)."Gibson reeled off four consecutive birdies from Nos. 14-17, and added birdies on Nos. 3-4 and Nos. 7-8."I was only 1-under through the first four holes, but drained a 25-footer at the 14th," he said. "Things started to snowball after that."The $1.4 million tournament is limited to players who have won a major title in the past five years or a regular senior event the past two years.
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