Bart Bryant took things where he left them after winning the Dicks Sporting Goods last week and closed round one of the Boeing Classic with a one shot lead over Duffy Waldorf and Bobby Clampett.
Bryant got hot from the start with a birdie on the opening hole, settled for a par on the second and then ran a streak of four holes with a birdie before his first bogey of the day at Par-4 seventh to go down to four-under.
He would remain at four-under making the turn, but then he made another birdie at the Par-4 10th and then birdied 12th and 13th to get to seven-under and threatening with running away with the opening round.
But a bogey on the Par-3 17th dropped him to six-under which would be his closing score for the day. He led the field today with eight birdies.
Last week, Bryant won the Dicks Sporting Goods for his first career title on the Champions Tour in his 14th start on the circuit. His previous-best finish on the Champions Tour was T4 at the 3M Championship, his last start prior to last week, meaning he is right now a very high level golf and could be on the mix again this Sunday.
“I was off to a dream start, and then I kind of ran out of steam on the final few holes,” said Bryant, 50, a rookie on Champions Tour who missed almost all of the last three years after two major surgeries on his left wrist.
But he might have to overcome some big odds this weekend; no first-round leader has won this three-day event, which began in 2005. “The odds are with me then, right?” Bryant joked. “Because it has to happen sometime.”
Waldorf, who is looking for his first win this year, was bogey-free at five-under before making consecutive bogeys on 12th and 13th. He would bounce back and birdie the Par-4 14th to gain one of those shots back, but gave it away on 17th.
On 18th, Waldorf would make a superb hole-out from the bunker to finish a shot back at 67 five-under, along with Bobby Clampett, the longtime CBS announcer, who had a bogey-free round.
Bernhard Langer tied the front-nine record with a five-under 31 and finished with a 68. Langer won the Boeing Classic in 2010, one month after he won the U.S. Senior Open at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish.
Langher is T-4th along with Pullman High graduate Kirk Triplett, who shot a 68, and Dick mast. Seattle native Fred Couples is in contention after opening with a 69 to T-7th with Tom Lehman, John Cook and John Riegger.
Schwab Cup points leader Kenny Perry was at two-over after a double-bogey on the Par-4 12th, but would finish with birdies on four of his last six holes to close with a two-under 70, good enough to be T-11th.
Defending champion Jay Don Blake opened with a 72 and Seattle native Rick Fehr shot a 77.