J.C. Snead outdueled playing partner Tommy Aaron on his way to a course-record 65 and a one-shot lead Thursday in the opening round of the Senior Players Championship.
Snead and Aaron blistered the front nine at the par-72 TPC of Michigan course. Both shot 5-under 31, matching birdies on No's. 6, 7 and 8.They cooled off on the back nine but continued to battle as Bob Charles and Jim Ferree applied pressure.
Aaron finished at 66, equaling the course record set last year by Don Bies and Jim Albus, the 1991 Senior Players champion.
Charles, who birdied five straight holes in the middle of his round, Ferree and Kermit Zarley were at 67.
Jim Colbert, Rives McBee, Dale Douglas and Butch Baird were at 69, while four players, including Albus and Lee Trevino, finished at 70.
"I hit a couple of `yutsy' shots, but the ball turned in the direction I wanted it to and I kind of got some breaks," said Snead, who hasn't won since joining the Senior PGA Tour in 1990.
"It's not how well you hit it, it's how well you miss it. Most of my misses today were not too bad."
Snead's last win on the PGA Tour was the 1987 Westchester Classic.
Aaron quickly fell behind on the back nine, bogeying No. 10.
Gibby Gilbert, who played with the leaders and was three under on the front, birdied the 10th to pull within one shot of Snead.
But Gilbert bogeyed four of the last eight holes and finished at 72.
Snead and Aaron each birdied the par-3 12th. Aaron pulled even with a birdie at the par-5 13th, narrowly missing a 25-foot putt for eagle. He took a one-shot lead with a 20-foot birdie putt at the par-3 15th.
Aaron held the lead until his second shot found the lake on the par-5 17th. The bogey dropped him into a tie with Snead at six under. Snead, who didn't bogey a hole, moved in front with a birdie on 18, hitting a 3-iron within five feet of the pin.
Meanwhile, Charles put together the longest birdie string on the Senior Tour this season and moved into a tie with the leaders with a birdie at No. 16 to go six under.
At Memphis, Tenn., Peter Persons, who missed the cut in his last two tournaments, shot an 8-under-par 63 for a one-stroke lead over Gil Morgan and Dan Forsman after the first round of the St. Jude Classic.
Joe Ozaki, Nick Price and Chris Tucker opened with 65s on the 7,006-yard Tournament Players Club at Southwind. PGA champion John Daly, whose wife Bettye delivered a 6-pound baby girl Wednesday night, shot a 69. Masters champion Fred Couples, the defending champion, opened with a 70.