Page 16-Friday, August 8, 1980-The Michigan Daily
Stadler heads P
'Walrus'shoots 67
in rain-soaked round
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - Craig
Stadler, the chunky guy called "The
Walrus" by his fellow touring golfers,
shot a solid, 3-under-par 67 and took the
lead eysterday in the storm-delayed
first round of the 62nd PGA national
championship.
Stadler, who carries 220 pounds on a
5-foot-10 frame, had to wait for 36
minutes during a late-afternoon thun-
derstorm delay before finishing par-par
on the two toughest holes on the course
for sole control of the lead.
His late heroics lifted him ahead of a
group of five tied at 68. They included
veteran Bob Murphy, Dr. Gil Morgan,
Curtis Strange, Howard Twitty and
Bobby Walzel.I
Defending champion David Graham
of Australia and the man he beat in a
playoff for the 1979 title, Ben Crenshaw,
were at 69, one-under par on the 6,964-
yard Oak Hill Country Club course that,
most leading players -agreed, played
about as easily as it ever will.
Hale Irwin, a two-time U.S. Open,
titleholder, also was a 69 and the only
other man able to break par.
"If you're ever gonna shoot a decent
score here, this is the day to do it," said
Twitty, the recent winner of the Har-
tford Open.
But the'pre-tournament favorites,
Tom Watson, Lee Trevino and Jack
Nicklaus, weren't able to take advan-
tage of the relatively easy scoring con-
ditions: soft greens which held the ap-
proach shots, soft fairways that kept
the ball from running into the deep,
treacherous rough, and the absence of
wind.
Nicklaus, who broke his long slump
with a dramatic victory in the U.S.
Open a couple of months ago, managed
a round of par 70.
It could have been much better. "I
played fairly well, but I missed an
awful lot of putts,"-said Nicklaus,
seeking to add a record-matching fifth
Professional Golfers Association title to
his record collection of 16 major-
tournament victories. "I could have
had a very low score. I putted the hall
fairly well, but they just didn't go in,"
he said.
Watson, a five-time winner on the
U.S. tour this season and making his
first start since winning the British
Open two weeks ago, didn't make a bir-
die in his effort that left him eight shots
off the pace.
"I can't remember the last time I was
shut out of birdies in a round," Watson
said.
"But that doesn't take me out of it. I
still think the winning score is going to
be around 280(par). But it means that
this has to be my bad round. I can't af-
ford another one. It means I have to
play three good rounds."
Trevino, a two-time winner this year
who scored the first victory of his
career in the U.S. Open on this course in
1968, generally agreed. "It might even
go over par," he said.
"I just didn't play very well,"
Trevino said. "I mis-clubbed several
tines and got it over the green and
when you do that, you're just gonna
make bogey. It's that simple."
"On the fifth, I got it just off the fair-
way, a foot and a foot. That's a foot into
the rough and foot deep," he said.
Strange agreed.
"There's no making par out of that
deep stuff," he said.
But Stadler found a way.
"I wasn't driving the ball as well as
I'd like to, but I got a lot of good lies.
Most of the time I was just in the edge of
the rough. I was always where I could
advance the ball. The course was set up
easy for me. It suited my game."
But his putting didn't hurt anything,
either.
He scored from 20 feet for a birdie on
the second hole, then one-putted six of
the next eight holes to save par.
He got to two-under with a 15-foot putt
on the 10th, then got his next two birdies
after driving into the rough. He wedged
to 10 feet and made the putt on the 12th
and used a wedge again from the rough
on the 14th. It set up a four-foot putt
which he ran in to go four-under par for
the day and two ahead of the field. But
he hooked it off the tee on the 16th,
couldn't extricate himself from the
deep stuff this time and made his lone
bogey of the day. After the rain delay,
he finished par-par for the lead.
Stadler, who won the Bob Hope
Classic and Greensboro Opens earlier
this year, was the only one of the
leaders to play in the afternoon half of
the field when the heat, which reached
into the mid-90s, and the heavy
humidity, were at their worst.
"It was just a fun day," he said, but,
characteristically, wasn't taking his
leading position too seriously.
"Oh, no," he said. "There's still
much too much golf to be played to be
thinking about winning. I'm just
thinking about playing as well as I
can."
FIRST ROUND LEADER Craig Stadler flips his.putter into the air after
missing a par putt on the 16th hole during the 1980 PGA Championship at
Rochester, N.Y. It was one of the few mistakes that Stadler made while
shooting a round of 67 to take the early lead.
Isaac chosen
Stu Isaac, head swimming coach for the University of Michigan
women's team, has been named as one of six coaches to work with the United
States National Team in the International Swim Meet for Boycotting nations
at the University of Hawaii. The meet will be held August 14 through 17.
The U.S. team will train for two weeks on the Pacific Islands before
meeting most boycotting nations, including Japan, West Germany and
Canada.
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BUCS WIN, EXPOS FALL:
NL East race tightens
0
CHICAGO (AP) - Bill Madlock hit a two-run homer, pit-
cher Eddie Solomon cracked a pair of doubles and Tim Foji
drove in three runs with a double and two singles,
highlighting a 16-hit attack that carried the Pittsburgh
Pirates to an 11-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs yesterday.
It was the third straight triumph for the Pirates, who
moved within 1 games of first-place Montreal in the
National League East. The Expos were beaten by the New
York Mets 7-1.
The Cubs got solo home runs from Mike Tyson in the first
inning and Jesus Figueroa in the second, his first in the
major leagues. The Pirates tied the score with two runs in the
bottom of the second on a wild pitch and Phil Garner's triple,
then went ahead 3-2 in the third on Dave Parker's double and
Willie Stargell's single.
New York 7, Montreal 1
MONTREAL (AP) - Ray Burris pitched a six-hitter in
his first start since returning from the 21-day disabled list
and Joel Youngblood and Jerry Morales hit home runs as the
New York Mets defeated the Montreal Expos 7-1 yesterday.
Burris, who had been out with a broken thumb since July
3, lost his shutout bid when Rowland Office slammed his four-
th homer of the year leading off the seventh inning. Burris
struck out two and walked none in raising his record to 5-6.
THE METS took a 1-0 lead against starter Fred Norman,
?-2, in the second inning when Morales hit his third home run
of the season - all against Montreal.
New York added three runs in the fifth. Frank Taveras
started the inning with a single and raced to third on Elliott
Maddox's single. Lee Mazzilli drove in Taveras with a
sacrifice fly and after Steve Henderson struck out,
Youngblood capped the inning by slamming Norman's 3-2
pitch over the left field fence.
It was the sixth homer of the season and first since July 4
for Youngblood, who had stretched his hitting streak to 14
games with a single in the fourth.
The Mets padded their lead with three runs off reliever
Dale Murray in the seventh. Maddox singled for his third hit,
Henderson walked and Youngblood singled to load the bases.
Morales then stroked a two-run single and Alex Trevino lof-
ted a sacrifice fly.
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