Nineteen years after he won the the Utah Open on the same golf course, Victor Regalado returned to Willow Creek Country Club and picked right up where he left off.
Regalado, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour in the 1970s, fired a 6-under par 66 on a hot and muggy Friday to grab a share of the first-round lead at the University Hospital Utah Open with young Texan Steve Jurgensen.A stroke behind Regalado and Jurgensen at 67 are four players, PGA regular and Orem resident Keith Clearwater, Seattle's Dan Gullikson, Tucson's Willie Kane and Kury Reynolds, a Salt Lake pro who recently moved back from California.
Two players, Washington's Scott Geroux, who led last year's tournament for two days, and ex-BYU golfer/ex-PGA regular Jim Nelford are close behind at 68.
A group of six golfers, including Park City's Eric Hogg stand at 69. Former Tour regular Jim Carter was the only golfer to fire a 70.
Twelve golfers are piled up at 71, including Alpine assistant Kim Thompson, Mulligans' Jimmy Blair, Homestead's Bruce Summerhays, Bountiful's Kirk Bowler and local amateur Steve Campbell.
Mac O'Grady, the two-time PGA Tour winner, was victimized by a lost ball at No. 13 and finished at even-par 72 along with a dozen others. That group includes Fore Lakes pro Brad Asplund, defending champion Mark Carnevale, former champion Perry Arthur and famous sons John Miller and Bobby Casper.
Regalado, a native of Mexico who lives in the San Diego area, won the 1972 Utah Open with a four-day score of 283, the last time it was played at Willow Creek Country Club, before it became a permanent fixture there in 1981. Later in the decade he won two PGA Tour events, at Pleasant Valley in 1974 and at Quad Cities in 1978. He said this is his first Utah appearance since 1972.
On Friday he was cruising along at a course-record pace, going to 8-under through 13 holes. Then as he stood on the 5th tee (he started on the back nine), the wind started swirling and it eventually took a couple of strokes away from him.
His tee shot at the 189-yard 5th hole found the sand, as did his second shot at No. 6. Then he had to scramble to make pars at the next two holes, sinking a 5-footer at 7 and a 12-footer at 8.
"The wind was really tough, no question about it," said Regalado. "I played really well for 13 holes and was in my zone so well."
The 43-year-old Regalado ("I wish I was 50 years old," he laughed) is trying to work his way back onto the regular PGA Tour where he was once so successful. He said his game was simply "bad" from 1984 to 1990, but just lately has turned things around thanks to help from a "secret" source he preferred not to publicize.
Regalado has played six weeks in a row and done very well, finishing second at the Queen Mary Tournament in Long Beach last week, 3rd in a tournament in Nevada and 4th in tournaments in San Diego and Palm Springs.
His birdies came at 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 1, 3 and 4. He was hitting it close all day as his longest putt an 8-footer at 16.
Jurgensen is a young golfer from The Woodlands, Texas, near Houston. He played the Asian Tour earlier in the year and lately has been playing mini-tour events in Texas. He shot a 64 in Wednesday's pro-am at Willow Creek
The highlight of his round Friday was an eagle-3 at the par-5 No. 3 hole when he sank a 60-foot putt.
Clearwater has been coming to the Utah Open every year for a decade, but has never won. Usually he has opened with scores around par and had to play catch up the rest of the way. This year he's off to a better start. He says he wouldn't mind winning, but isn't obsessed with it.
"It's kind of a fun week for me, like a vacation for me," he said. "If I'm in contention Sunday, that's fine. But you can't make winning happen."
The 21-year-old Reynolds is a former standout junior golfer who attended Skyline High School. At the age of 18, he turned pro and moved to California, where he played the Golden State Tour. He has moved back to Salt Lake as an unaffiliated pro with his eye set on the Utah Open.
"I've been building toward this for a long time," he said. "I've built my game for this golf course. This tournament means a lot to me."
Reynolds was one of only five players to break par in the afternoon when conditions were considerably tougher, thanks to more wind and dried-out, spiked-up greens. He'll get to play in the morning wave today, going off at 7:30 a.m., which should be an advantage.
The field will be cut to the low 70 players plus ties for Sunday's final round.
Some of the top local players who are in danger of missing the cut are last-year's runner-up Milan Swilor , former champion Mike Malaska Steve Schneiter , Lynn Landgren Bruce Brockbank and Henry White .
The final round is set for Sunday with the leaders teeing off around noon.