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Vaughan vaults into lead
Senior Players Championship
at Fox Chapel Golf Club
Purse: $2.7 million
Yardage: 6,710; Par: 70 (35-35)
First round
Bruce Vaughan 31-33 — 64
Fred Funk 33-32 — 65
Fred Couples 33-33 — 66
Tom Lehman 30-36 — 66
Michael Allen 35-31 — 66
Joe Daley 32-34 — 66
Greg Norman 34-33 — 67
Jim Thorpe 34-33 — 67
Bill Glasson 34-33 — 67
Steve Pate 36-32 — 68
Bobby Clampett 35-33 — 68
Kenny Perry 34-34 — 68
Rod Spittle 34-34 — 68
Mark Calcavecchia 32-37 — 69
Ted Schulz 37-32 — 69
Jay Don Blake 32-37 — 69
Peter Senior 32-37 — 69
Brad Faxon 35-34 — 69
Brad Bryant 34-35 — 69
Tom Purtzer 33-36 — 69
Craig Stadler 34-36 — 70
Tom Watson 34-36 — 70
Loren Roberts 35-35 — 70
David Eger 34-36 — 70
Roger Chapman 34-36 — 70
Larry Mize 35-35 — 70
Jeff Hart 34-36 — 70
Jeff Freeman 37-33 — 70
David Peoples 34-36 — 70
Corey Pavin 36-34 — 70
Willie Wood 34-36 — 70
Gil Morgan 36-34 — 70
Kirk Triplett 35-36 — 71
Peter Jacobsen 34-37 — 71
Jay Haas 34-37 — 71
Russ Cochran 36-35 — 71
David Frost 36-35 — 71
Morris Hatalsky 36-35 — 71
Chip Beck 38-33 — 71
Lonnie Nielsen 33-38 — 71
Andrew Magee 34-37 — 71
Tom Kite 35-36 — 71
Gary Hallberg 34-37 — 71
Mark Wiebe 34-37 — 71
Bob Tway 35-37 — 72
Phil Blackmar 36-36 — 72
Steve Jones 36-36 — 72
Hale Irwin 35-37 — 72
Larry Nelson 36-36 — 72
Scott Simpson 34-38 — 72
P.H. Horgan III 38-34 — 72
Jim Gallagher, Jr. 37-36 — 73
Steve Lowery 35-38 — 73
Jeff Sluman 37-36 — 73
Bruce Fleisher 36-37 — 73
Joel Edwards 37-36 — 73
D.A. Weibring 37-36 — 73
Olin Browne 36-37 — 73
Sandy Lyle 37-36 — 73
Mark Brooks 35-38 — 73
Bob Gilder 36-37 — 73
Tom Jenkins 36-37 — 73
Eduardo Romero 35-38 — 73
Hal Sutton 37-37 — 74
John Cook 35-39 — 74
Tommy Armour III 35-39 — 74
Mike Goodes 39-35 — 74
Ben Crenshaw 35-39 — 74
John Huston 35-39 — 74
Chien Soon Lu 36-38 — 74
Jim Carter 35-39 — 74
Andy Bean 36-38 — 74
Jim Rutledge 36-38 — 74
Dan Forsman 37-38 — 75
Jerry Pate 33-42 — 75
Bobby Wadkins 40-35 — 75
Mark McNulty 41-35 — 76
Gene Jones 37-39 — 76
Dick Mast 39-40 — 79
Wayne Levi 35-45 — 80
Tony Jacklin 40-41 — 81
Daily Photo Galleries
By Scott Brown
Published: Thursday, June 28, 2012, 12:42 p.m.
Updated: Friday, June 29, 2012
Bruce Vaughan, one of a handful of players who took advantage of an early tee time and soft playing conditions, made enough birdies Thursday to earn an invite to the media tent.
Before talking about what stood up as the low round at the Senior Players Championship, Vaughan posed a question to a moderator: “Do you need me to introduce myself and tell them who I am?”
The same thing didn't need to be asked of some of Vaughan's closest pursuers since they include Fred Couples and Greg Norman.
Vaughan blistered Fox Chapel on a day that produced extreme heat but not the kind of wind that could help defend the relatively short course.
His 6-under-par 64 tied a Senior Players Championship record for lowest score in the first round and made Vaughan one of 20 players to break par.
The one thing Vaughan's bogey-free day didn't provide is breathing room.
Eight players enter today's second round within three strokes of Vaughan, a Kansas native and 2008 champion of the Senior British Open.
Included in that group are Couples, the defending Senior Players champion, and Norman, who made his first start on the Champions Tour since 2009 and shook off an opening bogey to shoot 67.
Norman played in one of the first groups out yesterday and the one that attracted the largest gallery.
Norman, Tom Watson and Tom Lehman gave fans a show as they combined to shoot 7-under.
Watson, playing for the first time since the middle of April, carded an even-par 70, and he would have been among the leaders had a couple of more putts dropped.
Watson got to 2-under after holing out a delicate chip shot from just off the green at No. 11, a 408-yard par-4. That came shortly after Norman drained a 45-foot birdie putt.
“It means a lot to have them playing period,” Lehman said of Norman and Watson, “and it means even more when they play well.”
Nobody played better on the front nine than Lehman.
The reigning Champions Tour Player of the Year birdied five of the first seven holes to set the early pace, and he made the turn at 30.
Lehman stumbled a bit with back-to-back three-putts on 11 and 12 before finishing with a birdie on No. 18, a par-5 that many players reached in two yesterday. Couples and Allen also shot 66 and joined Vaughan as the only players without a bogey in the first round.
The steady Couples didn't miss a fairway yesterday, and his round would have qualified as a relatively stress-free one had his back felt better after his round.
“I'm really, really stiff,” said Couples, whose back problems are chronic and well-documented. “I feel lucky I got through this round with that score and I have a lot of rest until (today).”
“If me or Bruce or some of the (players at 4-under par) go way under it's going to be 16, 17, 18,” said Fred Funk, who finished a shot off the lead.
Notes: Fans will be permitted to take a bottle of water into the next three rounds because of the heat. Fans will be able to re-fill those bottles at the first-aid station and spectator village on the course. ... The first 10,000 fans at Fox Chapel on Sunday will be given Terrible Towels.
Scott Brown is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at sbrown@tribweb.com.
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