PETE IACOBELLI AP Sports Writer
AP Online
11-06-1998
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) _ On a frigid day, Hale Irwin got hot.
Gray clouds and 25 mph wind gusts made the Grand Strand feel a little like the North Pole. Ray Floyd and Jim Dent wore wool caps. Tom Wargo had a turtleneck beneath his short-sleeve shirt, and Bob Murphy wrapped a sweater around his neck.
``The best day we've had has been one-sweater weather rather than two sweaters and windbreakers and parkas and gloves and hand warmers,'' said Irwin, who burned up The Dunes Golf & Beach Club course Thursday with a 6-under-par 66.
That gave Irwin a two-stroke lead over Bob Duval in the Senior Tour Championships, the season finale on the Senior PGA Tour.
``Nobody on this tour likes bad conditions,'' said Floyd, the 1994 champion who is three shots behind Irwin. ``You'd like to think about golf, heat, being loose and warm, and it's just the reverse.''
Irwin said he had trouble warming up, a problem that quickly disappeared once the round began. He surged in front with birdie putts of 25 feet on No. 3, 10 feet on No. 4 and 20 feet on No. 5. He pitched to 2 feet on the eighth hole for his fourth birdie.
He got to 6-under with a birdie on No. 13, the Dunes' par-5 signature hole. He had his lone bogey on the 16th hole when he drove into a divot, then slashed a 9-iron within 6 feet for a closing birdie on No. 18.
``A lot of control shots. A lot of good putting. Just the kind of game I'd hope to have starting out,'' Irwin said.
In his fourth Senior season, Irwin has turned the circuit into his personal cash machine, amassing more than half his career earnings of $13.2 million on the senior tour.
But at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club, Irwin often has been no better than a club pro. He was eighth in his first try in 1995 and 10th a year later.
Last year, despite 11 victories and a pro record $2.3 million won, Irwin watched Gil Morgan blow by him for a two-stroke victory.
``If I happen to be lucky enough to win this, I'd have to say that 1998, if not the best year ever, is certainly one of the best years that I've had in professional golf,'' said Irwin, the U.S. Senior Open champion and again the tour's top money-man at more than $2.5 million.
Whoever wins the $2 million tournament will receive $347,000, the biggest prize in Senior PGA Tour history.
Bruce Summerhays and Floyd were at 69. Defending champion Morgan, who has tracked Irwin almost step for step the past two seasons, was at 2-under with Larry Nelson.
Duval holed a 97-yard sand wedge for an eagle-2 on the par-4 seventh and crept to a stroke of Irwin after his 6-foot birdie on No. 17. But then he rolled his second shot on the 18th into some deep rough in front of the pond and took bogey.
Duval, the father of PGA Tour star David, said the beach courses near his home in north Florida often frost up like Myrtle Beach through late fall and winter. ``I enjoy playing in this kind of weather because it's a challenge,'' he said. ``If you hit the ball well, you get rewarded.''
Summerhays was at 1-over through 13, then birdied the next four holes. Divots: The Tournament Players Club of Myrtle Beach, which will become the home course of next year's Senior Tour Championship, is expected to open Feb. 2. ... Dunes Club director of golf Cliff Mann says a site selection group from the United States Golf Association will visit the historic course, which played host to the past five Senior Tour Championships. ... Don Bies' 71 took the first-round lead of the MasterCard Champions, the 60-and-older competition. Charles Coody was a stroke behind. ... Temperatures for today's second round were expected in the mid-50s, but the wind was not supposed to gust as much.
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press All Rights Reserved.
AP Online
11-06-1998
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) _ On a frigid day, Hale Irwin got hot.
Gray clouds and 25 mph wind gusts made the Grand Strand feel a little like the North Pole. Ray Floyd and Jim Dent wore wool caps. Tom Wargo had a turtleneck beneath his short-sleeve shirt, and Bob Murphy wrapped a sweater around his neck.
``The best day we've had has been one-sweater weather rather than two sweaters and windbreakers and parkas and gloves and hand warmers,'' said Irwin, who burned up The Dunes Golf & Beach Club course Thursday with a 6-under-par 66.
That gave Irwin a two-stroke lead over Bob Duval in the Senior Tour Championships, the season finale on the Senior PGA Tour.
``Nobody on this tour likes bad conditions,'' said Floyd, the 1994 champion who is three shots behind Irwin. ``You'd like to think about golf, heat, being loose and warm, and it's just the reverse.''
Irwin said he had trouble warming up, a problem that quickly disappeared once the round began. He surged in front with birdie putts of 25 feet on No. 3, 10 feet on No. 4 and 20 feet on No. 5. He pitched to 2 feet on the eighth hole for his fourth birdie.
He got to 6-under with a birdie on No. 13, the Dunes' par-5 signature hole. He had his lone bogey on the 16th hole when he drove into a divot, then slashed a 9-iron within 6 feet for a closing birdie on No. 18.
``A lot of control shots. A lot of good putting. Just the kind of game I'd hope to have starting out,'' Irwin said.
In his fourth Senior season, Irwin has turned the circuit into his personal cash machine, amassing more than half his career earnings of $13.2 million on the senior tour.
But at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club, Irwin often has been no better than a club pro. He was eighth in his first try in 1995 and 10th a year later.
Last year, despite 11 victories and a pro record $2.3 million won, Irwin watched Gil Morgan blow by him for a two-stroke victory.
``If I happen to be lucky enough to win this, I'd have to say that 1998, if not the best year ever, is certainly one of the best years that I've had in professional golf,'' said Irwin, the U.S. Senior Open champion and again the tour's top money-man at more than $2.5 million.
Whoever wins the $2 million tournament will receive $347,000, the biggest prize in Senior PGA Tour history.
Bruce Summerhays and Floyd were at 69. Defending champion Morgan, who has tracked Irwin almost step for step the past two seasons, was at 2-under with Larry Nelson.
Duval holed a 97-yard sand wedge for an eagle-2 on the par-4 seventh and crept to a stroke of Irwin after his 6-foot birdie on No. 17. But then he rolled his second shot on the 18th into some deep rough in front of the pond and took bogey.
Duval, the father of PGA Tour star David, said the beach courses near his home in north Florida often frost up like Myrtle Beach through late fall and winter. ``I enjoy playing in this kind of weather because it's a challenge,'' he said. ``If you hit the ball well, you get rewarded.''
Summerhays was at 1-over through 13, then birdied the next four holes. Divots: The Tournament Players Club of Myrtle Beach, which will become the home course of next year's Senior Tour Championship, is expected to open Feb. 2. ... Dunes Club director of golf Cliff Mann says a site selection group from the United States Golf Association will visit the historic course, which played host to the past five Senior Tour Championships. ... Don Bies' 71 took the first-round lead of the MasterCard Champions, the 60-and-older competition. Charles Coody was a stroke behind. ... Temperatures for today's second round were expected in the mid-50s, but the wind was not supposed to gust as much.
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press All Rights Reserved.
