Lehman opens PGA season with 66

Ron Sirak

Friday, Jan. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- For a guy who said his biggest drawback was not believing in himself, Tom Lehman is suddenly sounding like there is no stopping him.

"I don't know if I'm capable of winning six or seven times in a year," Lehman said Thursday with typical modesty after shooting a 6-under-par 66 to take the first-round lead in the season-opening Mercedes Championships.

"But it would be fun to find out," he added with his equally typical determination.

This is a 37-year-old guy who lost his PGA Tour card, took six years to get it back, had several heartbreaks in major championships, but is now one of the top players in the world.

Lehman showed that again Thursday with a seven-birdie, one-bogey round that gave him a one-stroke lead over Jim Furyk and Paul Goydos and put him three strokes better than Fred Couples, Justin Leonard and Guy Boros.

Lehman's great 1996 season, in which he won the British Open and the Tour Championship, led the money list and had the lowest stroke average, will likely earn him PGA Tour player-of-the-year honors when the results of player voting are announced tonight.

And the confidence he is bringing into the new season could propel Lehman to even greater heights. No one has won six tournaments in a season on the PGA Tour since Tom Watson in 1980.

The beginning of the Tiger Woods Era? Perhaps. But Tom Lehman is excited about rising to the challenge.

"It's almost like everyone else that has worked so hard gets overlooked," Lehman said about all the attention Woods is getting. "You want to say, 'Hey, I'm pretty good, too."'

Lehman's great round at the La Costa Resort and Spa followed a sizzling end to 1996 when he won the season-ending Tour Championship by six strokes, then romped through the unofficial end-of-the-year events with a victory in the Grand Slam of Golf and the Diners Club matches, a second in the World Cup of Golf and a seventh in the $1 Million Challenge in South Africa.

"$710,000," Lehman said about his end of the year activity. "Not a bad four-weeks work."

Overall, Lehman earned $2.6 million around the world in 1996, second best to the $3 million won by Colin Montgomerie.

"Winning is contagious," Lehman said. "Once you start winning, it gets in your blood and you want to do it again."

Woods, the 21-year-old sensation who will undoubtedly be rookie of the year when the players' vote is announced, showed the rust of a month away from competitive golf with a 2-under-par 70 in which he made one birdie, one bogey and an eagle.

Woods said his rust was most evident in his iron play.

"I wasn't really firing at the pins," he said. "I thought it was wise to play conservative and not blow myself out of it on the first day. I'm right in it."

He did show some of the magical aspects of his game, chipping in for a birdie from the rough on No. 3 and making an eagle on No. 12 when he drove 310 yards and hit a 4-iron from 215 yards to 30 feet and made the putt.

Furyk, at 26 one of the good young players overshadowed by Woods' sensational debut on the PGA Tour last fall, made five birdies and no bogeys to get his 67. Goydos made one bogey in shooting his 67.

Lehman started slowly on Thursday, making four pars before be bogeyed No. 5 after driving into the bunker.

"That got me into the competitive mood again," Lehman said.

He birdied five of the next seven holes on putts ranging from 4 to 18 feet and closed out his 66 with 20-foot birdie putts on Nos. 16 and 18.

"Once you start making a few, the hole looks bigger and bigger and bigger," Lehman said.