LVI notes: Furyk pushes into the hunt again

Victoria Sun and Brian Hilderbrand

Thursday, Oct. 14, 1999 | 11:51 a.m.

It's a nice title, Jim Furyk said, but being defending champion of the Las Vegas Invitational -- and the tournament's only two-time winner -- doesn't give him an advantage against the competition.

"Last year is over," Furyk said. "It's nice to come back as the defending champion, it's nice to maybe get a little extra support and cheers from the crowd, but, realistically, no one else in the field cares."

But the rest of the field may want to take notice of Furyk's opening-round 5-under-par 67 Wednesday at the Desert Inn Golf Club. Three times before, Furyk has opened with a 67 in the LVI and three times he has finished in the top five -- including his wins in 1995 and 1998.

Nevertheless, Furyk wasn't predicting a third win in Las Vegas following his round Wednesday, which put him six shots off the lead going into today's second round.

"It's a long week, there's a lot of golf left," Furyk said. "A four-round golf tournament is long, let alone five -- it seems like it lasts forever at times. I'll try to take some of the positives from (Wednesday) and hopefully carry those over to (today).

"I didn't do too much too poorly today; I didn't make any mistakes and I didn't shoot myself in the foot."

Furyk's five-birdie, no-bogey round included birdie putts of 40 and 30 feet on his back nine after birdie putts of 1, 3 and 4 feet on the front.

"I didn't make many putts on that first side, I had a lot of 15- and 20-footers that didn't go in," Furyk said. "I hung in there and then all of a sudden I make two bombs, so I guess it all evens out in the long run -- normally not in that short a time period, though."

While the Desert Inn traditionally has been the most difficult of the three courses used in the LVI rotation, Furyk said he expected the scores to be lower this year because players are allowed to lift, clean and replace their golf balls at the course this week.

"This year, the scores might be a little better at the Desert Inn because we have the ball in hand because it's so wet out here," Furyk said. "If you keep the ball in the middle of the fairway, you get to clean the mud off the ball and you get to put it in a perfect lie."

* BERRY GOOD: Recent UNLV grad and two-time All-American Chris Berry shot a 3-under-par 69 at the Tournament Players Club in Summerlin in his professional debut.

Berry received a sponsor's exemption into the tournament and although he said he was comfortable playing at one of his former home courses, he still was a little nervous. Actually, "a lot" nervous. "I was just trying to stay focused," he said. "My caddie kept having to tell me to breathe."

Here's how other local products fared:

Skip Kendall shot 4-under-par 68 at TPC. Kendall graduated from UNLV in 1987. Back then, he said of Las Vegas, "I don't think there was anything past Rainbow Boulevard" -- including the TPC. Kendall and his wife, Beth, are planning to catch a few shows while they're in town. "We're going to visit some restaurants and have fun. It's a great place to visit."

Chris Riley, who graduated in 1996, shot a 1-under-par 71 at the Desert Inn -- which was pretty good considering his past experiences there as a Rebel. For some reason, Riley has never played well at the D.I.

Edward Fryatt, UNLV class of 1994, shot a 2-under-par 70 to tie for 95th.

Charley Hoffman, who graduated in Berry's class this year and also was granted a sponsor's exemption, shot a 71 to tie with Riley and others at a distant 110th while Las Vegan Robert Gamez was at 4-under 68 and tied for 49th.

* CAREER CHANGE? PGA Tour rookie Joe Ogilvie is so inspired by Chip Beck's positive outlook that he had a suggestion for what Beck might do to supplement his income.

"Chip's unbelievable," Ogilvie said of the man who shot 59 at the LVI in 1991. "I mean, he ought to do those emotional speeches, those positive-speaker type deals. He's a really great guy to be around."

Beck and Ogilvie played a practice round together the day before Ogilvie shot a 63 to tie for second with seven others on Wednesday.

* BEST BOGEY OF THE DAY: Ben Bates has had some bogeys in his career, but none like this.

On the par-4 18th at the TPC, Bates hit his drive that hooked left into the hazard. He then took a drop which rolled within an inch of the hazard, so he climbed into the hazard to hit his third shot. But that wasn't the end of his misfortune. His third shot landed in the water, so he had to take another drop. Finally, though, his luck turned and he holed out a sand wedge from 100 yards, avoiding double bogey.

"I'd say that's the wildest bogey I've ever seen in my life," Bates said. "Bogeys are not beautiful, but if there ever is such a thing, that was a beautiful bogey."

Bates, who has had the flu for the past four days, finished at 1-under 71.