Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf: Round 1 notebook

text size

Martin/Getty Images

The team of Nick Price and Mark O'Meara made five consecutive birdies on Friday.

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- It was a successful debut for the Champions Tour's newest member, Tom Lehman, and his partner Bernhard Langer. The pair shot an 11-under-par 61 and share first place with the team of John Jacobs and Fuzzy Zoeller.

• Jacobs and Zoeller had the most birdies in Friday's first round with 11, one more than the team of Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle.

• Former Masters champion Bob Goalby, who has played in 31 of 32 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, helped get the opening round under way when he hit the ceremonial first tee shot on Friday morning. Earlier in the week, Goalby had teamed with Dow Finsterwald in the Demaret Division competition at the event.

• The last time two teams shared the lead after the opening round was in 1997 when John Bland/Graham Marsh and Gene Littler/Don January were tied at 9-under-par 63. Bland and Marsh went on to a three-stroke victory in the Legends Division.

• Lyle and Woosnam picked up where they left off a year ago. After finishing third in 2008, two strokes behind Andy North and Tom Watson, they opened with a 10-under-par 62 on Friday and trail by just one stroke.

• Defending champions North and Watson opened with a 6-under-par 66 and are currently tied for 11th. They also extended their streak of consecutive holes without a bogey to 180. Since teaming up in 2006, the pair has played 10 consecutive bogey-free rounds. North's caddy this week is three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Thomas Friedman.

• Since teaming up in 2005, Watson and North are a combined 92-under par after 10 rounds in the tournament.

• Mark O'Meara and Nick Price had the day's best birdie streak. O'Meara and Price started their back nine with five straight on their way to a 9-under-par 63.

• In the Raphael Division, the teams of Mike Hill/Lee Trevino and Gary Koch/Roger Maltbie share the lead at 8-under-par 64 in the 36-hole affair which concludes on Saturday. Hill and Trevino won four Legends Division crowns, the most recent coming in 1996, while Koch and Maltbie were victorious in 2003 and 2008.