TIMONIUM, Md. — Phil Blackmar, Bruce Fleisher and Des Smyth shot 5-under 65s on Thursday to share the first-round lead in the Senior Players Championship, the fifth and final Champions Tour major of the year.
Blackmar holed out from the fairway for eagle to help offset four bogeys, Fleisher made four straight birdies early in his round, and Smyth had a bogey-free day to top the leaderboard. All three are winless this year.
"I really didn't anticipate this at all," said Fleisher, winless since 2004.
Fred Funk, Scott Hoch, Bernhard Langer and Eduardo Romero opened with 66s and 19 players were within three strokes of the lead after an ideal day for scoring at the East Course at Baltimore Country Club.
Rod Spittle of Niagara Falls, Ont., is tied for 20th place with a 1-under 69.
Blackmar, a Champions Tour rookie who took seven years off from competitive golf, provided the highlight of the day with his approach shot on the 389-yard, par-4 10th hole. Blackmar's shot with a pitching wedge from 106 yards landed about 10 feet short of the cup and skipped in for an eagle.
Combined with birdies on the ninth and 11th holes, he played that three-hole stretch in the middle of his round in 4 under.
"I had no idea that it would take so long to get back competitively to anywhere near where I was before," he said, citing his final hole as evidence of improvement.
Out-of-bounds stakes loom just to the left of the fairway on the 460-yard, par-4 18th. Blackmar hit a perfect drive, played a 6-iron to 12 feet and made the birdie putt.
"I suspect that earlier in the year I would never have hit the fairway on 18," he said. "I would've been bailing out so bad, I would've been outside of the gallery ropes."
Smyth, whose son won nearly $14-million (U.S) in the Irish National Lottery two months ago, hasn't had a victory since 2005 and hasn't even managed a top-20 finish this season. But he had three tap-in birdies on the front nine and birdied Nos. 11 and 14 to match Blackmar. Smyth narrowly missed birdie putts on his final three holes.
"This has been a really terrible season," Smyth said.
"Really, I was just hoping I could find a little bit of form at the end of the season, so I could take something into next year.I know conditions were really good, but still, it takes a bit of golf to shoot 65."
Fleisher is an 18-time winner and former player of the year on the Champions Tour. He shot a 5-under 30 on the front nine and, after a bogey at 10, sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the 15th to move into a tie for the lead.
"Just one of those days that everything clicked," he said.
Jay Haas, the tour's leading money winner, was at 4 under after six holes, but settled for a 67. Defending champion Loren Roberts shot a 68.
The tournament is sponsored by Constellation Energy.
