Pair of 68s top ACE Classic
NAPLES (AP) – Vicente Fernandez and Don Pooley shot 4-under 68s Friday to share the first-round lead in The ACE Group Classic, while Jay Haas finished a stroke back after a two-stroke penalty for hitting a piece of pine straw in a hazard.
Wayne Levi matched Haas with a 69 on the new TPC Treviso Bay, and Bernhard Langer, Loren Roberts, Gene Jones, Dan Forsman, Fulton Allem, Mike Goodes and Jim Chancey opened with 70s. Goodes won Allianz Championship on Sunday for his first Champions Tour victory. Chancey made it into the field as a Monday qualifier.
Fernandez, 62, the 2003 winner in Naples, holed a 60-foot birdie putt on the final hole. Fernandez hasn’t won since, and hasn’t been as consistent as he was his first eight years on the tour. The past month, the Argentine star has been bothered by back spasms, and he couldn’t even practice Thursday.
Pooley, 57, birdied four straight holes, then parred the last six coming in.
Twenty-seven players shot par or better on the new layout, designed by Arthur Hills with Hal Sutton serving as a player consultant. Sutton was among the leaders at 3 under, but double-bogeyed 15 and bogeyed the last two holes to drop to even par.