Is this Colonial or the Twilight Zone?
Can this be the golfing gala immortalized by Ben Hogan and embraced by such legends as Sam Snead, Julius Boros, Cary Middlecoff, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus?Hardly.
Atop the leaderboard entering today's second round of the $1.3 million Colonial Invitation were Dick Mast, Jeff Maggert and Duffy Waldorf, three non-winners on the PGA Tour.
In order, that's an activist in the circuit's Bible study group, a Texas Aggie and a wine collector who wears funny hats.
What's more, Ian Baker-Finch contributed a dubious footnote to Colonial lore. In the water at the par-3 13th, he removed shoes, socks and slacks and blasted out.
The darkly tanned Australian, a former British Open champion, hit his tee shot into the edge of a pond that fronts the green.
Before a cheering gallery of hundreds on the course and millions more watching the cable telecast, Baker-Finch sat down and removed his shoes and socks.
And then his trousers came off.
The cheering increased to bedlam.
When he stepped ankle-deep into the pond to play his second shot, he was barefoot and bare-legged, wearing only blue-green boxer shorts below the waist.
"I'm just glad I wore my good ones," Baker-Finch said later.
Casual as could be, the half-clad Aussie clambered out of the water after his shot, dried himself with a towel, put on pants, socks and shoes and went about his business.
No penalty.
"There was nothing serious about it," PGA Tour official Mark Russell said. "It's not like he was running around the fairway like that. He just didn't want to get his pants wet."
The scene seriously upstaged the more staid, traditional activities on the golf course.
"He just turned golf into a PG-13 sport," quipped PGA champion Nick Price who was playing in the same group with Baker-Finch.
On the next hole, three female fans following Price and Baker-Finch began chanting "hit it in the water, hit it in the water."
The players did not oblige. There is no water on the 14th.
While Baker-Finch's semi-strip caught the gallery's eye, it did little to improve his score. He made bogey on the 13th, as well as 14th, shot 74 and was was well off the first-round pace at 4-over par.
Mast seized the lead Thursday with a 6-under-par 64, a shot ahead of Maggert and Waldorf and two in front of a quintet at 66: Russ Cochran, John Huston, D.A. Weibring, Fulton Allem and Steve Pate.
Mast holed a 60-footer from the sand for an eagle 3 on the first hole and toured the 7,010-yard Trinity River layout in 30-34 in his first appearance here since 1974.
"That'll get your attitude going pretty good," said Mast, 42, a pro since 1972 whose best finish was runner-up last year at the Greater Milwaukee Open.