Hale Irwin proved it again Friday. On the Senior PGA Tour, the only one who can really outdo Irwin is Irwin himself.
Irwin was so hot he had Joe Inman and the others in the Ameritech Senior Open field talking to themselves. For Inman, that was a good thing. A very good thing.
For Irwin, it was more of the same. Only better.
Irwin has won three times this year, 16 times since joining the Senior PGA Tour in 1995. He leads the 1998 money list with $1,540,250. But in the first round of the Ameritech, Irwin was pointed toward a galaxy far, far away.
Did anybody say 59?
Irwin did–to himself. He settled for a course-record 62 at Kemper Lakes, equaling his Senior Tour low, surpassing the 63 Walter Morgan shot in the first round of his wire-to-wire victory here in 1996 and securing a three-shot lead over Inman.
Hugh Baiocchi (6-under-par 66) is four strokes back, and defending champ Gil Morgan (69) is seven behind.
“I must say, I had 59 in my sights,” Irwin said. “When I made the turn in (6-under) 30, it was something I was thinking about. But that was asking an awful lot on this golf course.
“When I got to 9-under after 12 I thought, `If I can just find four more somewhere and one of those is a par 5 (15th), it could be pretty interesting.’ “
It was pretty interesting anyway. When Irwin birdied five of the first six holes–he missed a 6-footer for birdie on No. 2–he knew it was going to be a great day. Not perfect–when Irwin called home to Phoenix he learned the contractor on the house he is building had walked off the job–but close enough.
“Maybe today the moon and the stars were in the right alignment,” he said after tying the tournament record-low of 62 shot by Joe Jimenez at Stonebridge Country Club in Aurora in 1995. “Maybe tomorrow they’ll be all mixed up.”
Irwin said the key to his round was placing his hands a little lower on the putter. He made birdie putts of 12 feet at No. 1, 25 feet at No. 6, 10 feet at No. 8 and 28 feet at No. 10. He also punched a 5-iron out of the trees on the 12th hole to within 5 feet of the flag.
“I did a lot of very good things today,” he said. “Almost every opportunity that presented itself I was able to take advantage of. The course was sort of a sitting duck out there. The scoring opportunities were great. The pin positions were of moderate difficulty, and the greens were holding shots.”
When asked if the round rivaled any he has ever had, Irwin didn’t waffle.
“A 62 is a 62,” he said. “I don’t care where you shoot it, how you shoot it. I played very well. I’m not going to go out and hit balls this afternoon. I don’t want to wear out my welcome.”
Inman probably was more stunned by his 65 than Irwin was by his 62. In 15 years on the regular tour, Inman had only one victory, in the 1976 Kemper Open. From 1989-97 he was off the tour, working as a sales representative for Ping. After surviving the 1997 Senior Tour Qualifying School, though, he has improved steadily.
Friday’s round had him talking to himself–and answering.
“Today I can trace to one shot,” he said. “After I parred the first six, I birdied the seventh hole. So I go to the eighth tee and I drive it in the left rough. I said to myself, `This is what you always do, Joe. You birdie one hole and then you feel compelled to bogey the next one.’ So I’m standing there behind the trees and I said, `By gosh, Joe, you play too conservative. You came into this world with nothing, you can leave with nothing. It’s not written in law that when you birdie you have to bogey right after.’
“So I stood there and hit it over the trees, and it stopped 12-14 feet away. I parred the hole, but once I got by that certain level I was relaxed. I couldn’t believe it.”
Inman closed with a 30 on the back nine, including a 25-foot birdie putt on 13 and a 14-footer on 18. But Inman won’t be trying to catch Irwin on Saturday. He’ll just be trying to avoid his biggest flaw: Trying too hard.
“Gil (Morgan) and Hale–I don’t look at them,” Inman said. “They’re better than us. Let them play their tournament, and we’ll play ours.”
