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Courtesy of Greg Hardwig
Naples Daily News
NAPLES -- No winners of The Franklin Templeton Shootout have ever been members of the Champions Tour at the time. But a pair of them have the lead after the first round.
Jeff Sluman made a 35-foot downhill birdie putt from off the green on No. 18 as Sluman and Nick Price shot an 8-under 64 and took a one-shot lead over Scott Hoch and Kenny Perry on a windy, chilly Friday.
"When I hit the putt and it got through the fringe so well, it just went through perfect, I said 'Oh, boy, this is probably going a little harder than Nick wants," said Sluman, knowing Price would have to hit the next putt in the modified alternate shot format.
 Sluman's 35-foot downhill birdie putt on No. 18 gave team Sluman/Price an 8-under 64 and a one-shot lead. |
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"I was looking four or five feet by," Price said, chuckling. "I was at an angle, and I couldn't see the line of it."
"Finally, I looked up and said 'It's dead online,"' Sluman said. "Everybody in the stands started standing up, so they had a good line. I guess it was going fast enough that it wasn't going to break."
The ball smacked the flagstick and dropped in the cup.
"I think you split the pin," Price said.
Hoch, who won the Champions Tour's ACE Group Classic in February, and Perry, 48, birdied four straight holes to get to 7-under, then Perry made a 10-foot par putt on No. 18.
"This tournament, you win or lose based on the first round," said Perry, who won with John Huston in 2005. "The alternate shot first round, you come out of here shooting even, or 1- or 2-under, and then you get to the best ball and scramble, it's hard to catch up. You've somehow got to shoot 6-under or more the first day to have a chance to win this golf tournament."
Sluman and Price were happy to hear that.
"Then where's the check?" Sluman said.
"We'll take it," Price said.
J.B. Holmes and Boo Weekley eagled No. 17 to move into third and finished at 5-under. Zach Johnson and Scott Verplank birdied the last two holes to get to 4-under, tied with Stewart Cink and Fred Couples.
"We left a few out there and didn't make a whole lot of putts, but on the first day, you want to go out there and put up a pretty good score," Weekley said. "We're in a good spot to be. We'll see what we can do on the weekend. I think that scramble works to our advantage, and best-ball is good for us too, because we both like to make a lot of birdies."
 Tournament host Greg Norman and Camilo Villegas are tied for sixth at 3-under. |
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"It was up and down, very roller-coaster like," Johnson said. "We made some putts, we missed some putts, that was the story. A couple errant shots on my part. (Verplank) played fine."
Two-time champion Brad Faxon and Scott McCarron are tied for sixth with tournament host Greg Norman and Camilo Villegas at 3-under. Faxon and McCarron were closer to the lead, but bogeyed Nos. 13 and 14. Norman and Villegas birdied three of their last seven holes.
Calusa Pines Golf Club members Paul Azinger, the 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team captain, and Rocco Mediate struggled to a 1-over 73. They were 2-under, then double-bogeyed No. 14, and bogeyed No. 16.
Today's format is better ball. Both golfers play their own ball through the hole, and the one with the lowest score counts for the team. The teams will play a scramble on Sunday.
The previous eight years, six of the eventual champions shot 64s in the first round.
Price and Sluman birdied Nos. 11, 12 and 13, then Hoch and Perry birdied Nos. 14, 15, 16 and 17 to tie them.
"The front nine we didn't really hit them close enough," said Hoch, 53. "If you depend on 15-footers in something like this, you're not going to shoot very low."
"Alternate shot, to me, is my best game," Perry said. "I love it in Ryder Cup, for Presidents Cup, whatever."
The two leading teams were the only ones not to make a bogey on Friday.
Couples and Cink were in third place most of the day, but bogeyed No. 14 and three-putted for a par on the par-5 17th. The two started with an eagle on the first hole.
"We got off to one heck of a start, and then hit the skids," said Couples, a three-time Shootout winner. "Probably the toughest shot I had was on the par-5 14th, I guess. I could've hit it on the green. I pulled it down in the junk up against the twig. He got it out of there. I think that was the killer to make 6 there."
Staff writers Adam Fisher and Nick Krueger contributed to this article.
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