Bryant leads Boeing Classic
SNOQUALMIE, Wash. -- Bart Bryant got off to a fast start in his bid to win consecutive Champions Tour titles, shooting a 6-under 66 on Friday to take the first-round lead in the Boeing Classic.
Bryant had eight birdies and two bogeys at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge, five days after winning the Dick's Sporting Goods Open in Endicott, N.Y., for his first victory in his rookie season on the 50-and-over tour.
"It was a good way to start. I wish I could have hung on there late. Kind of ran out of steam the last few holes, but overall, a great day," Bryant said. "I'll take a 66 every day for the rest of my life."
Bryant opened with a birdie and added four in a row on Nos. 2-6. He bogeyed the par-4 seventh, rebounded with birdies on Nos. 11, 13 and 14, and had another bogey on the par-3 17th. On the 210-yard, par-3 13th, he holed out from a bunker.
Bryant did not play much during his final four years of PGA Tour eligibility because of two surgeries on his left wrist. The first one didn't work and, after the second one, he said, "I was beginning to think this might be it."
"I was not really hopeful to play again," he said, "but the second time we did it, it worked. It seems like it's holding together. It was just years and years of beating it up. I lost all the cartilage in there. The bones started rubbing. So they went in there and fused one big bone."
Duffy Waldorf and Bobby Clampett shot 67, and Bernhard Langer , Dick Mast and Kirk Triplett followed at 68. Langer tied the course record with a 5-under 31 on the front nine.
Hometown favorite Fred Couples opened with a 69.
Waldorf, who tied for sixth last year in the event in his Champions Tour debut, chipped in from a bunker behind the green for an eagle on the 498-yard, par-5 18th.
Triplett, who grew up in Eastern Washington, had four birdies in a bogey-free round.
