Skinner's 62 ties Buick Open course record
By HARRY ATKINS AP Sports Writer
GRAND BLANC, Mich. (AP) - Tiger Woods and Justin Leonard had
the fans. All Sonny Skinner had was a surprising piece of Buick
Open history - and a whooping four-shot lead after Thursday's
first round.
Skinner's 10-under-par 62 tied the Buick Open record set two
years ago by Jim Furyk at Warwick Hills Country Club. It also
gave him a comfortable lead over Nolan Henke, who shot 66 in near-perfect
summer weather.
There was a huge logjam of players at 67 that included Furyk,
Vijay Singh, David Duval and former University of Michigan captain
John Morse.
Woods, the Masters champion, was nowhere to be found on the
leaderboard. He had five bogeys in his even-par round of 72 over
the 7,105-yard layout, about 60 miles north of Detroit.
Ernie Els, the U.S. Open champion, shot a 68. Leonard, who
won last month's British Open, shot a 70. So much for the charge
of the Generation X brigade.
"I didn't want to quit," said Skinner, who birdied
his last four holes. "It's amazing how playing well affects
your energy level."
Skinner, whose previous best was a 64 in 1991 at the Chattanooga
Classic, started his round with a par on the 10th hole. He birdied
Nos. 11-13, then Nos. 16-17 to make the turn at 5-under 31.
"I see by the charts that my putt on No. 17 was 40 feet,"
Skinner said. "I swear it looked like an 80-footer when I
was standing over it."
Skinner got a 10-footer to drop on No. 2, setting up his four-hole
charge at the finish. Playing perhaps the best golf of his career,
Skinner hit a 9-iron to 12 feet on No. 6, a pitching wedge to
one inch on No. 7, a 5-iron to 15 feet on No. 8, and a 9-iron
to four feet on his finishing hole.
"On No. 7, I thought, 'Gosh, here I am leading the tournament
by two strokes and nobody's watching me,' " Skinner said.
"Then, I looked over to my right, and there were the other
60,000 people."
The crowd was following the threesome of Woods, Leonard and
Payne Stewart.
Was Tiger aware that Skinner had gone 10-under?
"Yeah, we saw it out there," Woods said. "That
can happen out here. It happens almost every week out here, that
somebody goes out and puts up a good number early."
Woods said the immaculate condition of Warwick Hills plays
a big role in the low scores that frequently are turned in during
the Buick Open.
"A 10-under can be done here," Woods said. "The
greens are soft, and so smooth. If you get the putter rolling,
that's a very makeable score here."
Skinner's putter has frequently been his biggest enemy. On
this day, however, the stroke was sweet.
"Some days you just wake up on the right side of the bed,"
said Skinner, who played the last four years on the Nike Tour.
"The putter just feels right in you hand and the ball flows
down the line. You just have to let those days happen."
Skinner, who won Nike events in 1993 and 1994, has never done
better on the PGA Tour than a tie for 19th at the 1990 B.C Open.
He earned a playing card for this season with a tie for 21st in
the Tour qualifying tournament.
And unless his game suddenly comes together and stays together,
the 36-year-old from Cummings, Ga., is likely to find himself
back at Q-school. In 14 tournaments this year, Skinner has missed
the cut nine times. His best finish has been a tie for 36th at
last month's Deposit Guaranty Classic.
"I never knew you had to be this good," said Skinner,
who needed only 23 putts in his record round. "If I had known
before I came out, it might have discouraged me." DIVOTS:
Among other notable finishers: Fred Couples and New Zealand's
Frank Nobilo shot 69s; Steve Jones and Steve Elkington shot 70s;
Scott Hoch, Curtis Strange, Fuzzy Zoeller and Stewart shot 72s;
Corey Pavin and Mark Brooks shot 73s; and Davis Love III shot
a 75. ... Skinner's 62 matches the low 18 holes on the PGA Tour
this season on a par-72 course. The six others who carded 10-unders
were: John Cook and Jesper Parnevik at the Bob Hope Desert Classic,
Jones at the Phoenix Open, Duval at the AT&T Pebble Beach
National Pro-Am, and Brian Claar and Mike Reid at the United Airlines
Hawaiian Open. ... Two others have shot 62s this season on par-70
courses. They were Jimmy Johnston at the Quad City Open and David
Ogrin at the MasterCard Colonial.
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