Champions Tour: Joe Durant takes early lead at Hualalai

KAILUA-KONA — The Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai has a reputation of being fairly friendly to newcomers. That remained true for the first round on Thursday.

Joe Durant fired a 7-under 65 in his debut round at Hualalai to take a one stroke lead, but is followed closely by a chase group that includes Tom Pernice, Jr., Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III and defending tournament champion Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Also not far off is 2006 winner Loren Roberts and Duffy Waldorf — another Hualalai first timers — at 5-under.

Durant played a practice round and in the pro-am earlier this week, but admitted the conditions at the PGA Tour Champions’ season-opening event made it a bit more challenging on Thursday.

“I putted beautifully and I think that was kind of the key,” Durant said. “Made a couple good putts right out of the gate and, yeah, I was real happy. The wind was a little tougher today, it was a little heavier and it was definitely a lot stronger than we had the two pro-am rounds. It was a little different animal today.”

Jimenez won the tournament in his debut last year, and is among eight players to have done so. Durant is hoping to add his name to that list, as well as wire-to-wire winners. Since the event moved to Hualalai in 1997, the first-round leaders have hung on to win seven times, most recently in 2010 when Tom Watson took home the crown.

Durant had nine birdies in his first round, but his best shot might have been a bogey on No. 5. He hit a shot into the water on the 205-yard, Par 3 hole, but recovered with a shot from the drop zone that landed within four feet of the hole.

“I actually thought I hit a good shot, but it went in the water,” Durant said. “That was one of the times were the wind gusted a bit, and I made a good bogey there.”

Love is wrapping up a three-tournament tour in the islands. He played in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions on Maui and the Sony Open on Oahu last week.

“The first two weeks identified things I needed to work on,” Love said. “It’s good, I’ve been playing. I played four rounds at Kapalua, three at Sony, so I’ve gotten the rust off and feeling better about my game.”

It’s uncommon for Love to play three events in a row at this point of his career, but he looked fresh and focused for his first round on the Big Island. He reeled off four consecutive birdies on holes 4-7, and capped his day with another on 18.

“I hit a couple bad drives, but other than that I hit the ball real solid,” Love said. “I made one or two tough putts, longer putts, but really just hit it well enough that I had a lot of birdie chances and got the par 5s. Other than one bogey, pretty good, solid day.”

Putting was the story of the day when it came to Bernhard Langer — a two-time winner at Hualalai and the Champion Tour’s leading money winner last year.

Langer shot a 70 — along with Fred Couples — to stay within striking distance, but the majority of the attention was focused close to his chest, rather than his scorecard.

Langer hasn’t used a short putter in nearly two-decades, and the event is his first since the anchored stroke was banned Jan. 1. While he didn’t change putters, he opted for a new style. It seemed to bother him on a few holes, and will be a story to watch the rest of the tournament.

It’s a well-accepted fact that the winner will have to go low at Hualalai. The question will be how low.

Only once in the last 15 years has the winner of the event not carded three rounds in the 60s. That player was Hale Irwin in 1997 when he shot a 1-over-par in a wind-riddled first round.

“I’ve watched this tournament on television several times and I remember Loren (Roberts) shot something ridiculous one year. It seems like every year there’s some pretty low scores,” Durant said. “You’ve got to get to 15-20-under to even have a shot at it, especially if the wind lays down at all.”