Two guys from the opposite ends of the Senior Tour spectrum find themselves together atop the leaderboard at the Franklin Showdown Classic.
George Archer, the tour's hottest golfer during the past month and Jack Kiefer, a non-exempt former club pro trying to make it on the tour, both fired 5-under par 67s Friday and share the first-round lead at windy Jeremy Ranch.Another stroke back at 68 is Charles Coody, still trying to forget about last year's final two-hole collapse, while five golfers, Larry Laoretti, Gibby Gilbert, Bert Yancey, Rolf Deming and Billy Maxwell are tied at 69.
Among the seven players at 70 are defending champion Dale Douglass and Utah's Bob Betley, while ex-Utahn Billy Casper heads a group of 12 golfers at 71.
For Archer, leading a Senior Tournament is nothing new. He won two weeks ago at Bruno's Memorial Classic in Alabama and two weeks before that he won the Northville Classic at Long Island, New York. He also won the Murata Reunion tournament in Dallas earlier in the year. But he has no explanation for his fine play of late.
"Two things about golf - you don't know why you play bad and you don't know why you play good," said Archer. "I've been on a hot streak lately. Why things start to go your way, I don't know. That's just the nature of the game."
Archer started on the back nine and quickly put three birdies on the board at 11, 13 and 14. He stalled a while and made his only bogey of the day at No. 2 when he hit a bunker. He came back with a tap-in birdie at No. 3 and capped off his round with birdies at 8 from three feet and 9 with a two-putt from 40 feet.
Kiefer finished a couple of hours before Archer and appeared to be the lone leader until Archer's late birdies. Despite being a little-known ex-club pro, Kiefer is actually one of the better Senior players, when he has the chance to show it, that is.
He was exempt last year after qualifying in the 1990 Tour school, but a car accident in mid-year set him back and he lost his exempt status for this year. While he's only played in nine tournaments this year, he has banked $108,000 dollars to rank 40th on the money list. Two weeks ago he finished in a tie for second behind Archer at Bruno's.
Because of his fine finish in Alabama, Kiefer was given one of the four sponsor's exemptions at the Showdown. After a nondescript first nine (he also started on 10), he came back with four birdies on his second nine, at 3, 4, 5 and 9, the latter when he decided to gamble from a poor lie on his second shot over the water.
"I just had one of those rounds where I started giggling again. The putts were just falling in," he said of back-to-back putts of 30 and 25 feet at 4 and 5. "It seems like I'm getting the breaks lately."
Coody, who led most of the way last year after opening with a 65, was pleased with his opening round. "I felt like I played well considering the wind today," he said.
His only bogey came at No. 6 when he sliced one into the creek and his birdies came at 2, 4, 14 and 16.
Coody was in no mood to discuss last year's collapse when he finished double bogey-triple bogey. "I didn't come here to talk about 1991, I'm here to talk about 1992. What's happened is history."
For a while it looked like a real unknown, Bill Kennedy, might end up in the lead. He ran off four straight birdies on the front nine to grab the lead at 5-under-par. But a three-putt from 15 feet at No. 13 for bogey put him on a downward spiral and he eventually finished with an even-par 72.
"The front nine was wonderful, but the back nine was not too fun," said a disappointed Kennedy.
The players are re-paired for Saturday's second round with Archer, Kiefer and Coody going off in the final group at 1:40 p.m. The first group goes off at 9:30 a.m.
One player who won't be around for the final round is crowd favorite Chi Chi Rodriguez, who withdrew after an opening-round 74, citing problems with the altitude. Frank Beard also withdrew after an 81.