Big names on top

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Oct. 11, 2001 | 9:58 a.m.

Fred Couples pondered the question for about a second before he coughed up an answer preceded by a bittersweet chuckle.

"About five years ago," he said when asked when he lost his touch with the putter. "'My stroke, it doesn't feel bad. It just gets bad.

"I panic and get nervous over a three-footer and I can still make them, but my stroke has changed. This year has been really bad. I mean if people watched, it's not that I don't make putts, it's just that you can't go out and miss five or six three- or four-footers a week."

Wielding a new putter, Couples didn't miss very many on Wednesday afternoon. And neither did Tom Lehman.

Couples tied his low round of the year by shooting an opening round 9-under-par 63 at Southern Highlands Golf Club and Lehman duplicated Couples' score at the TPC at Summerlin to lead the field of 144 entering today's second round of the $4.5 million Invensys Classic.

Joe Ogilvie, Craig Parry, Tom Pernice Jr., and Rory Sabbatini were each a stroke behind with Jim Carter, Steve Flesch and Bob Estes tied at 7-under 65.

Former UNLV golfer Skip Kendall, who had former NBA player Charles Barkley in his group, was one of five golfers who finished three strokes behind the leaders.

Southern Highlands produced the average low score of the tournament so far at 68.771, followed by Summerlin at 70.354 and TPC at the Canyons at 70.375.

Couples, who teed off this morning at the Canyons, braced himself for a windy day at Southern Highlands but was pleasantly surprised when he started Wednesday's round on the back nine and things were calm. He birdied Nos. 12, 13, 17 and 18.

On the front nine he made a 20-foot birdie on the par-4 417-yard first hole. He then hit a 6-iron to about 50 for another birdie on the par-3 second hole and two-putted for birdie on the par-5 598-yard third hole.

Couples finished the round with a six-foot birdie putt on No. 5 and a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 8.

"From what I saw today, this is a plus," Couples said. "It doesn't mean that I'm going to become a great putter, I just need to be a better putter and I'll be very satisfied with that.

"I don't want anyone to think I shot 63 with a new putter and now I'm the king of putting. They just went in today and even the ones that didn't really felt well."

Couples, a former Masters and two-time Players Championship winner, hasn't been able to say that in a long time.

Entering the Invensys Classic, the 14-time winner on the PGA Tour missed the cut in three recent tournaments and dropped to 130th on the money list with $354,066.

As he became increasingly frustrated with his putting, Couples tried everything from different grips to different putters with no results so he shortened his playing schedule.

"When I putt well, I'm OK and when I don't, I'm terrible," Couples said. "I hate to have people think, 'Oh, he's had one bad year and he wants to quit.'

"I've tried all these things. But when I get out on the course my stroke is not the same. And I don't want to say I've got the yips, but my stroke is not as solid as it should be.

"Therefore, I do not choose to go out and beat my brains at home at practice and play and work with teachers and do the right things and come out to where it's mediocre golf. It's just not really who I am."

Couples began using the putter that worked like magic eight weeks ago after the last tournament he played, the Reno-Tahoe Open in August.

He spent the last two months at home practicing and hoping to see results.

"Coming here, I knew my game was pretty good from practicing," Couples said. "Did I think I was going to shoot 63? No. But was I expecting myself to hit the ball really well."

Like Couples, Lehman also had nine birdies including two 15-footers and hadn't played a tournament since August.

For the five-time winner and former British Open champion, the 63 was his low round of the year.

"I definitely was mentally fresh," Lehman said. "I was at home and I played very well at home.

"I actually shot 60 about a week ago in Scottsdale where I live; that just seems to have carried over a bit to now."

Earlier in the day, Parry delivered a round indicative of his skills and Sabbatini rescued himself from further disappointment.

The 64 tied a career low round for both players. Parry carded a 64 in the final round of the Invensys Classic last year at the TPC at Summerlin to earn a share of 12th place and Sabbatini shot his 64 last year at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

"I got lucky every time I hit maybe just an average shot, I made birdie out of two of those occasions and just had a couple breaks go my way which was nice," Parry said. "The way I've been playing, I've actually been playing really well. I've missed so many cuts this year by one or two shots.

"I've been making bogeys and that meant I had to come back with birdies whereas today, I was able to go out there and I only hit one bogey on the 15th hole and was more free-wheeling it."

Entering the tournament, Parry, who is 124th on the money list at $368,361, had missed four consecutive cuts.

After parring the first two holes, he made birdie putts on Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 9.

On the back nine, Parry made two birdies from about 18 feet (Nos. 12 and 17) and his lone bogey came on the par-4 485-yard 15th hole after he hit a driver into the rough.

Sabbatini's bogey-free round was even better.

He made four birdies and two eagles.

His first eagle came on No. 9, a par-5 547 yard hole where the green is surrounded by bunkers. Sabbatini hit a driver then 5-iron to about 30 feet. On the par-5 577-yard 13th hole, he hit a driver then 5-wood to about 15 feet.

The 25-year-old started off the year strong with a second-place finish at the Mercedes Championships, but has only one other top-20 finish. He missed three of the last four cuts and is 75th on the money list with $627,346.

"It has just been a case of being a little down on myself," Sabbatini said. "My golf has kind of been going through a bit of a tough patch. I've just been trying to get through it.

"It's one of those cycles, it's like it takes something to break you out of it. I'm just hoping this round is going to be that thing that takes me out of the cycle."

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