1993 Open Championship: First-Round Summary - Sharkive - Sharkwatch

At the height of its power, when the British Empire encircled the globe, men said an Englishman walks the earth as if he owned it. Whoever made such an observation obviously had not watched Peter Senior walk a golf course in full pursuit of the Open Championship.

A short, blocky Australian with a squarish face, a glorious moustache and a seemingly permanent scowl, Senior strides the earth not so much as if he owns it but as if whoever does may take title only when he is through using it.

As one of the early starters in the first round of the 1993 championship, Senior used the Royal St George's Golf Club very well indeed, ripping around in 66 and becoming the first of four men to shade par by four strokes and share the 18-hole lead.

Senior was followed quickly by the American Mark Calcavecchia, the 1989 champion, who began only 20 minutes behind him, and then by Greg Norman, a fellow Australian, who had won at Turnberry in 1986. Later in the day Fuzzy Zoeller, the 1984 US Open champion, fired 66 as well.

All of this turned out to be a surprising turn of events, for situated on England's southeastern coast, where unpredictable can be the kindest description of weather coming from off the English Channel, Royal St George's can be the most severe test on the Open rota.

Furthermore, with England gripped by a determined drought-rainfall for the previous seven weeks so slight it couldn't be measured-predictions indicated a high-scoring championship in which a parred hole would stand as a measure of excellence.

In the days leading up to the championship, the 122nd, by the way, the players talked quite cautiously of what they might expect. On the eve of the first round, Nick Faldo, defending the championship that had wracked him so emotionally when he won it a year earlier, pointed to the dry and bouncy condition of the fairways and predicted the Open could be won with a score over the par of 280, as Sandy Lyle had done in 1985, the last championship over this ancient ground. Faldo, and everyone agreed, rated Royal St George's as the toughest on the rota, purely because of the conditions-the lack of rain and the perpetual wind whipping across the great dunes.

He called it the firmest course since Royal Troon four years earlier, 'Maybe the firmest I've played. The downwind holes will play very short, but that doesn't mean they'll be easy; you have to stop the ball. With the bounces, this will be very tricky. Having a wedge in your hand doesn't mean you have an easy chance at a birdie.'

All that was speculation, for the players faced different conditions once the championship began. Rain fell Tuesday night and again

Wednesday, then more rain soaked Royal St George's Thursday. Pathways throughout the tented village and alongside the fairways, where spectators were forced to follow the play, oozed mud, turning walking into a hazardous exercise. One spectator slipped and lay in the muck alongside the ninth hole with a suspected broken ankle. Others were seen sliding off hummocks to undignified landings. Greens once hard as bricks that had rejected even the well-hit shot during practice rounds had turned soft and forgiving.

In its years out of the rota, Royal St George's had been criticized for its capricious character. Well-struck balls bounced erratically over the rolling, tumbling dunes, often kicking into the knee-high rough lining the generous fairways. No more. Under the changed conditions the players were able to control their shots.

Consequently the field turned in unusually low scores. Where in 1985 only 10 men had broken par during the first round, 47 shot under 70 and another 22 matched par -- 69 men at par or better. In addition to the four who shot 66, another 10 shot 67, and 14 more shot 68.

Bernhard Langer, who had won his second US Masters earlier in the year, was among those at 67, along with Larry Mize, who had won the 1987 US Masters. Fred Couples, who blazed home in 32, and Nick Price, playing at the top of his game, each were among those at 68, and after a blistering 32 going out, Faldo stumbled home in 37 and matched Lee Janzen, the current US Open champion, at 69.

Some old and favored names played some of their best golf of recent years. Seve Ballesteros, for ex ample, reached into what might be a dwindling reserve and shot 68, and Jack Nicklaus, encouraged by winning the US Senior Open only four days earlier, shot 69, along with 18 others.

Judging from his history, Greg Norman must not have felt particularly comfortable as he looked around at those tied with him after the first round; all three had beaten him in important competitions. Zoeller had thumped him in a playoff for the 1984 US Open, and Calcavecchia had beaten him in another playoff for the 1989 Open Championship when Greg had thrown away a one-stroke lead by bogeying Royal Troon's 17th and then driving into a fairway bunker on the 18th, allowing Calcavecchia to win with a birdie 3.

That leaves Peter Senior. Norman lost the 1991 Australian Masters to Senior when Greg hooked his drive to the last hole at the Huntingdale Golf Club, in Melbourne, behind a three-tiered hospitality complex. Norman pitched his ball so far over the obstruction it hit a similar structure on the opposite side of the green, bounced off, and skittered back across the green and into a bunker. Senior beat him by one stroke.

Squat and powerful at 5-ft-5, just a little taller than Ian Woosnam, Senior walks the fairways with his eyes straight ahead, muscular arms pumping, and moustache bristling. Like the juggernaut rolling over everything in its path, Senior gives the distinct impression of the irresistible force that will crush the immovable object.

He has a swing that is uniquely his own. Drawing the club back in an orthodox manner, he comes into the ball with a decided upward lurch, as if he has suddenly realized the club may be a little too long for him and he must compensate by raising himself higher.

He also uses the long putter, a club given to him five years ago by Sam Torrance, another disciple of the system. Senior holds the butt of the shaft under his chin with his left hand and strokes the ball with his right hand well down the shaft.

Peter can be sensitive about the putter. 'Some days when I hole a lot of putts everyone thinks I'm cheating. They don't say that when I'm putting badly. If you finish 50th every week, they're not going to say anything.'

By the time Senior teed off, at 8.20, under dull gray clouds and threats of further rain, the scoreboard already showed sprinklings of red numbers, indicating holes played under par, a clear warning of what lay ahead.

After saving his par on the first by holing a nerve-wracking eight-footer, Senior began his assault by pitching to 15 feet on the second and rolling the putt home for a birdie 3. Two more pars brought him to the fifth, the hole where John Daly had driven the green in a practice round and where Harry Bradshaw had played a ball lying inside a broken bottle during the 1949 Open. Daly had flown his drive over the left hump that rises at about the distance of a good drive by anyone else.

Taking a more sensible approach, Senior laid up short of the humps with his two iron, then played a four iron inside 15 feet and holed the putt for his second birdie. Two more pars, one a missed birdie chance when his putt from eight feet skimmed past the cup on the sixth, brought him to the eighth hole, a par 4 of 418 yards. A drive and another four iron left him 30 feet from the cup, and, behold, the long putter worked-he rolled it in.

Three under par now, Senior ripped another drive down the middle and laid a nine iron 25 feet away on the ninth. Once again the long putter did its job, a second straight birdie, his fourth of the first nine. Senior had gone out in 31, matching Henry Cotton's outgoing score in 1934.

Cotton had followed with 34 on the incoming nine, but such a score stood out of Senior's reach. A misplayed approach putt on the 11th, a par 3 of 216 yards, cost him a bogey, and he could pick up only one birdie, holing a 10-foot putt on the 13th, a strong par 4 of 443 yards, close to Pegwell Bay, which skirts the outer reaches of the course.

Senior came home in even-par 35, managing to par everyone of those strong finishing holes and missing only the 15th green, where he holed a I5-foot putt for his 4.

By the time Senior finished, Larry Mize, playing the best golf he had ever shown in an Open, had already posted 67, and both Lain Ryman, the Amateur champion, and Jesper Parnevik, the Swede who had won the Bell's Scottish Open the previous week, were in with 68, and Paul Azinger had shot 69.

Then, within 20 minutes, Calcavecchia came in with his own 66, and 10 minutes later Norman stormed home with his own.

Finding Calcavecchia among the leaders surprised most spectators; Mark hadn't been at his best since he won the 1989 Open, the last American champion. His career reached its lowest point, perhaps, during the 1991 Ryder Cup match, in South Carolina, when he held Colin Montgomerie four down with four to play and lost every hole, including the 17th, a long par 3 over water, even though Montgomerie hit his tee shot into the lake. Calcavecchia hit two into the water.

Calcavecchia blamed his putting for his fall from the game's heights, saying it had turned sour as a bowl of old milk. Home inArizona, he owns at least 75 putters, and then, in April, he bought his 76th, spending US$45 to buy it. It has worked well for him ever since.

Grouped with Faldo and Steve Elkington, Calcavecchia holed from 15 feet on the second, and from four feet to save par on the fourth. Another birdie at the seventh, at 530 yards the longest of the two par 5s, and Calcavecchia was out in 33.

The trip home held more perils as the wind began to rise and rain fell seriously for a time. Off quickly with birdies on the 10th and 12th, Mark worked his way through the Trinity, that dangerous stretch of holes beginning at the 13th and ending with the 15th, then missed the 16th green.

A pitch to two feet saved par there, and his approach to the 17th rolled 60 feet from the cup, a dangerous distance. With renewed confidence in his putting, Calcavecchia rolled it close and made his par.

Another par on the 18th, and he strutted off the final green with a blemish-free 66, plared without bogeying one hole.

Norman couldn't make a similar claim, and, in fact, played a much more erratic round. He began with a poor drive into the deep rough, tried to reach the green with an eight iron and failed, took two more shots before hitting the green, and two-putted from nine feet. A double-bogey 6.

Norman was stunned, of course, but not beaten yet. He told himself he had 71 more holes to play, and he should make some birdies and work his way back to even par. He did. A three wood and sand wedge to 18 feet on the second earned one, and then a four iron and six iron to nine feet on the fifth earned the second.

Another bogey on the sixth followed by a birdie on the seventh brought him to the nine-hole turn in 35, even par. Another bogey at the 11th, where he missed the green. Now he stood one over par with the most demanding holes coming up. A par at the 12th, as close as Royal St George's comes to a birdie hole, and then Norman was off on one of the championship's great bursts of scoring.

A great pitch to 18 inches at the 13th brought Greg back to even par, and then he had a great break. His third shot missed the 14th green, but from 45 feet he holed a sand wedge.

One under par now, Norman drilled a six iron within two feet on the 15th for his third consecutive birdie, and followed up by holing a putt from 24 feet on the 16th. Four consecutive birdies, and now Greg stood at three under par. He had made up five strokes after his opening double bogey.

Still, he wasn't through. He drove well on the 17th, and on that difficult hole ripped a five iron within five feet. Another putt fell - a fifth consecutive birdie.

Four under par now, Norman missed the 18th green, but he holed from 15 feet to save par. Playing a series of sensational irons through that scoring stretch and putting like a dream over a very difficult series of holes, Norman had come back in 31 and finished with 66.

The question remained, though, whether or not he could hold up. He had played sensational rounds in the past, and yet fallen out of the chase with a championship at stake. With scores such as this so early in the day (when Norman teed off at 9 o'clock, more than 90 percent of the field still had to play), nearly everyone anticipated even more lower scoring as the day progressed. Those who counted on it were disappointed, for only Zoeller matched those early 66s, although nostalgic passions rose with the showings of both Nicklaus and Ballesteros.

To call Seve's reappearance among the game's elite nostalgic may seem to stretch a point, for he is only 36, but nevertheless he has been in a deep slump for several years, and he had struggled through a series of high scores in the 1993 season. Ballesteros himself admitted his pleasure with his position.

Playing two groups behind Ballesteros, Nicklaus too opened as if he were still in his prime, with two birdies in the first three holes, and after stumbling over the fourth and fifth, bogeying both, he played the last 13 holes in one under par. This was his best first round in the Open since 1977, when he and Tom Watson battled through four stirring rounds at Turnberry. But Jack had nothing left. This championship was left to younger men.

Writers Robert Sommers Raymond Jacobs Michael Mcdonnell Michael Williams Marino Parascenzo Alistar Nicol John Hopkins	Photographers Lawrence Levy Michael Cohen
	Editor Bev Norwood