Byline: Associated Press
LAS VEGAS -- On a day when the wind howled and scores soared, Duffy Waldorf may have been the most surprised golfer in the Las Vegas Invitational.
Make that pleasantly surprised, after a 3-under 69 Friday left Waldorf with a four-shot lead after three rounds of a tournament suddenly turned topsy-turvy by wind gusting to 45 mph that caused scores to balloon.
``I never saw a leaderboard so I didn't know I had that kind of lead,'' Waldorf said. ``I really had no idea what a good round today would be.''
Playing away from scoreboards and on the Desert Inn Country Club course, the most sheltered of the three courses used in the tournament, Waldorf shot six strokes worse than he did a day earlier. It was still enough to vault him from a tie for the lead to a four-shot margin over Billy Mayfair. Fred Couples was tied with Kevin Sutherland another shot back.
Defending champion Tiger Woods, who double-bogeyed two holes on his front side after flubbing shots around the green, shot a 5-over 77 on the more open TPC Summerlin course and was 12 shots back. Senior PGA: Bob Eastwood, continuing the finest season of his career, shot a 5-under-par 67 in a strong, steady wind Friday for a two-stroke lead over five players in the first round of the Raley's Senior Gold Rush in El Dorado Hills, Calif.
Eastwood, a second-year Senior PGA Tour member who earlier this season claimed the rain-shortend Bell Atlantic Classic, fashioned a five-birdie round despite wind gusting over 30 mph on the 6,772-yard Serrano Country Club course.
``I hit a lot of good, solid putts in the wind today and that was the key,'' said Eastwood, whose $699,908 season earnings are nearly half the prize money he earned as a three-time winner in nearly 25 years on the PGA Tour. ``The holes didn't move around too much like the ball was.''
CAPTION(S):
JACK DEMPSEY/ASSOCIATED PRESS TIGER WOODS, right, gets advice from caddie Mike ``Fluff'' Cowan as he lines up a putt Friday on the 11th green at Las Vegas. Woods is 12 shots off the lead.
