Assured Crenshaw takes lead

Press, 14 April 1984, Page 76

Assured Crenshaw takes lead

NZPA-Reuter Augusta, Georgia

Ben Crenshaw played a flawless five-under-par 67 yesterday to take a onestrike, first-round lead in the Masters golf championship being played at the Augusta National course. The Texan, aged 32, missed only two fairways and one green and peppered the rain-softened greens with accurate approach shots in gaining two birdies over the front nine and three on the home ward half.

Ironically, his usually impeccable putting touch deserted him, otherwise he might have threatened the Masters record score of 64.

“I made only two putts, a six-footer (1.8 m for a par at 10 and a 12-footer (3.6 m for a birdie at 12,” he lamented. “I had a lot of good opportunities, with putts from the right angles, but I just missed them.” Crenshaw was hotly pursued by his fellow-Texan, Lee Trevino, who continued his resurgence at 44 years of age with a 68 over a course he admits he dislikes. David Graham, of Australia, Isao Aoki, of Japan, Tom Purtzer and Mark Lye were well in the hunt on 69, one better than Tom Kite, Hale Irwin, Ray Floyd, Gary Koch, George Archer and Britain’s Nick Faldo.

Other highly rated con-

tenders chasing Crenshaw included Andy Bean, Fred Couples and Jack Renner, who were grouped on 71 with South Africa’s threetime champion, Gary Player. The two favourites, the defending champion Severiano Ballesteros, of Spain, and the five-time British Open winner, Tom Watson, both made slow starts. Ballesteros opened with a 73 that was matched by Jack Nicklaus and Bernhard Langer, of West Germany, with Watson one stroke behind. Trevino needs a win in the Masters to join the select group with victories in all four major championships, and he confessed that

he was excited by the way he had performed in his first round. He has made little impact on the tour in recent years due to back problems that have forced him to reduce his practice sessions drastically. But he said he had gained inspiration from his second-place finish two weeks ago in the Tournament Players Championship. “It really did a lot for my confidence, shooting 14 under par for the last three rounds at the T.P.C.,” he said. Graham had a chance to share the lead with Crenshaw, but he wasted it with a double bogey at the eighteenth, where he drive into the woods at the last hole and rattled the trees with his attempt at a recovery.

Faldo, aged 26, who was Europe’s top player in 1983, dashed his hopes of the lead by three-putting the thirteenth and fifteenth from within 5.5 m after beautiful approaches had given him chances of eagles. First-round scores in the United States Masters golf tournament (United States unless stated). — Ben Crenshaw, 67; Lee Trevino, 68; Mark Lye, David Graham (Australia), Isao Aoki (Japan), Tom Purtzer, 69; Tom Kite, Gary Koch, George Archer, Hale Irwin, Raymond Floyd, Nick Faldo (Britain), 70; Wayne Levi, Andy Bean, Fred Couples, Jack Renner, Larry Mize, Rex Caldwell, Gary Player (South Africa), 71; Bob Eastwood, Fuzzy Zoeller, Peter Jacobsen, Clark Burroughs, Richard Fehrj, 72.