Tom Pernice, Jr. has played the PGA Tour's
Las Vegas stop enough times to know the deal.
Jam your foot on the pedal and keep it there, lest someone catches you from
behind.
Pernice, 50 years old and coming off a Champions Tour victory last month,
fired a career low-tying nine-under 62 on Thursday to share the first-round
lead with Troy Matteson and Spencer Levin at the Justin Timberlake Shriners
Hospitals for Children Open.
Under sunny skies and in balmy temperatures that peaked in the low 80s,
Pernice led 95 players in a field of 132 who shot even-par or better at the
TPC Summerlin.
Eighty-three players were under par.
"This is why people live in the Southwest and why I live on the West Coast,"
said Pernice, who hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation in his 18th start in Las
Vegas. "You hit some good quality shots (and) they were going to be up there
by the hole."
Bob Heintz and Martin Laird stood a shot behind the leaders at eight-under 63,
while three-time Las Vegas champion Jim Furyk shared sixth place with Scott
Piercy at 64.
While their 62s were good enough to share a one-shot advantage, the co-leaders
fell three strokes shy of the 18-hole Las Vegas tournament record. In 1991,
Chip Beck recorded the second 59 in PGA Tour history at Sunrise Golf Club.
Historically, the tournament has been a birdiefest, and players know the
importance of getting off to a good start.
For Pernice, that meant five birdies in his first seven holes -- he started on
the back nine -- for an outward 31. He added four more birdies on the front
side of the course for another 31 and a bogey-free round.
He birdied his last two holes to take the lead, draining a 35-foot putt on No.
8 and holing an eight-footer on No. 9.
The 62 matched his previous low score on the PGA Tour, carded in the second
round of the 2005 Children's Miracle Network Classic.
Pernice, who won his Champions Tour debut last month at the SAS Championship,
knows he will need three more days of the same to stay atop the Las Vegas
leaderboard.
"If the conditions stay like this, you need to be ready to come out here and
shoot some good scores and do some good quality shots and make some putts,"
said Pernice, a two-time PGA Tour winner. "You got to keep going. It's the way
it's been here forever."
Matteson, the 2006 champion, joined Pernice in the lead with a round that
included 10 birdies and a bogey. The 29-year-old carded his best career score
by a shot.
He three-putted from eight feet for a bogey at the 17th hole, falling out of a
share of first place, but rebounded with a 35-foot birdie putt at the 18th to
tie Pernice in the clubhouse.
Matteson saw plenty of low scores on the leaderboard before he even started
his round.
"You know you got to get out here and make a lot of birdies," he said. "There
are a lot of good opportunities to make birdie out here and if you putt well
you've got a chance to air it [out] and obviously a lot of guys did."
Levin, a 25-year-old who won three times on the Canadian Tour, was among the
last players to finish his first round. He carded seven birdies and an eagle
for his 62.
Among Levin's birdies was a 69-foot putt on No. 8, his 17th hole.
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