Watson leads at Champions Tour opener

KAUPULEHU-KONA, Hawaii -Tom Watson changed his putting stroke four days ago and it took him back 15 years.

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"You shoot low scores when you putt well," Watson said after exhibiting a putting touch reminiscent of his prime and firing a bogey-free 8-under-par 64 Friday to take a two-stroke lead in the MasterCard Championship.

Altering his putting stroke after arriving at Hualalai Golf Club, Watson converted eight birdies and didn't have a 5 on his scorecard in jumping ahead of Wayne Levi in the season-opening event on the Champions Tour.

Levi also avoided a bogey in his steady 66.

"It feels like I'm flipping at the ball, but it's going straight," said Watson, a winner of eight major titles who was winless last year as he battled hip and shoulder injuries and weathered the emotional loss of his longtime caddie Bruce Edwards, who died in April of Lou Gehrig's disease.

"I've been releasing it more than I have in the last 10-15 years and I was eager to see if it would hold up under pressure of a tournament round. It worked pretty well."

Vicente Fernandez, who took two months off to allow a torn tendon in his left ring finger to heal, chipped in twice for birdie to lead a large group at 5-under 67. Fernandez also avoided making a bogey.

Also at 67 were 2004 player of the year Craig Stadler, Dana Quigley, Morris Hatalsky, and John Jacobs. Quigley, the 2003 champion and runner-up last year, shot his ninth straight round in the 60s at Hualalai.

Six players, including defending champion Fuzzy Zoeller, were in with 68s.

Despite stiff winds that dissipated slightly as the day went on, all but five players in the field of 37 toured the 7,097-yard course designed by Jack Nicklaus at par or better.

"The course is in perfect condition. If you keep the ball in the fairway, you can have a go at some of the pins," Levi said after hitting 12 fairways. "But a good round is always about making putts, and I dropped a few."

The 55-year-old Watson came to Hualalai with the same ailments that caused him to miss the final two events of the '04 season. He was scheduled to have surgery on his right shoulder and left hip late last year, but canceled the procedures when his doctor said the hip surgery wouldn't completely alleviate pain from a bone spur.

Nevertheless, he missed just three fairways and one green, and got his round kick-started by converting a 45-foot birdie putt at the long par-3 fifth hole. "That was the key putt," he said. "That was like stealing. It's a tough hole."

Watson said desperation caused him to experiment with his putting stroke. He decided to break his wrists more in an effort to release the putter head. The result has been a truer roll to the ball and a pure arc to the putter head, he said.

It brought back memories of his prime, when he was among the boldest and most reliable putters in the game.

"For a few holes there, yeah," he said. "The key is, will it hold up? We'll see."