Larry Laoretti picked a good time to lead a tournament for the first time.
The cigar-chomping Laoretti snatched the lead after 54 holes of the U.S. Senior Open on Saturday as second-round leader Dave Stockton collapsed with five bogeys in a seven-hole stretch.Laoretti, who started the third round seven strokes behind Stockton, shot a 4-under 67 to lead the field by one stroke with a 6-under 207. Stockton fell apart with a 6-over 77 and an overall 210.
Laoretti rolled in five birdie putts and only once lost a stroke to par as the leaders emulated the mass retreat of last month's U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
It seemed like the only mistake Laoretti made was misjudging the length of his cigar. Ashes fluttered in the air when he tried to put his hat back on after tipping it to spectators following his final putt.
"I started smoking when I was 17 in the Navy on Guam and I've been smoking ever since," he said.
He said he goes through six or seven a round, but because of a cold had only four on Saturday. He's treating the cold "with pills and some good Italian red wine."
A club pro, Laoretti never played on the PGA tour. He joined the Senior group in 1989, and is yet to win in 81 starts. He celebrated his 53rd birthday Saturday with the lead in the Senior Open.
Al Geiberger shot a 71 to take the runnerup spot with a 5-under 208. Gibby Gilbert was another stroke back at 209 after a 73, snapping at eight his string of sub-70 rounds.
Then came Stockton, Gary Player and Jim Colbert at 210. Player shot 71 and Colbert 73. Charles Coody was at 211 after a 73.
Stockton, who slipped from 9-under to 3-under, was joined by Gilbert, South African Simon Hobday defending champion Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino, all victims of the tricky, undulating greens on the 6,700 yard Saucon Valley Country club course.
Nicklaus started the day 4-under, but dropped to even par after a 75 that included five bogeys. Hobday, who began the third round 5-under, also fell to even par after a 76 and Trevino shot a 76 to fall nine strokes off the pace at 216.
Stockton's blowup was similar to that of Gil Morgan last month in the U.S. Open, when he blew all but one shot of a seven-stroke lead after the seventh hole of the third round.
Laoretti was the only player among the leaders to improve his play over the second round.
Laoretti, who plays every shot with the cigar dangling from his mouth, birdied the first hole with a 12-foot putt, rolled in a 12-footer at the fifth and a 14-footer on the sixth to make the turn in 3-under 33. On the back, he made his only bogey when he hit over the green on 11 and missed a 4-footer.
At Williamsburg, Va., one member of the PGA Tour's fortysomething crowd put it into neutral in the Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic, and another roared right past him.
Ed Dougherty, still winless but plugging away at age 44, shot a 5-under-par 66 in Saturday's third round to overtake 40-year-old Morris Hatalsky.
With a strong start and a better finish, Dougherty wound up with six birdies and a lone bogey to complete three tours of Kingsmill Golf Club at 12-under 201.
Eleven players were within five shots of him heading into Sunday's final round.
"It's not hard if you say it fast," Dougherty said, "but all you have to do is shoot the low round tomorrow."
David Peoples had a chance for a share of the lead, but pulled his tee shot on the par-4 18th down a hill and into the left rough and made a bogey. He wound up with a 67 for a 202 total.
Hatalsky, who needed just 46 putts in the first two rounds, including 27 one-putt greens, couldn't find the magic Saturday.
He had two birdies and three bogeys in a 1-over 72 that left him at 203, joined by Bill Britton and Bruce Lietzke. Britton had a 64 and Lietzke, complaining of back troubles, carded a 68.
At 8-under 205 were Kingsmill resident Curtis Strange, Keith Clearwater, P.H. Horgan III, Frank Conner and Peter Persons. Clearwater and Horgan had 66s, Strange a 67, Conner a 69 and Persons, who began the day in second, three shots back, struggled to a 71.
At Vienna, Ohio, Meg Mallon solved her putting problems by sinking an 87-yard eagle that helped her tie Betsy King and Katie Peterson-Parker for the second-round lead in the LPGA Phar-Mor in Youngstown.
King, Mallon and Peterson-Parker were at 6-under-par 138 on the 6,297-yard Squaw Creek Country Club course, one shot ahead of a logjam of five golfers at 139, including Beth Daniel and first-round leader Denise Baldwin.