Chris DiMarco birdied 5 of his first 9 holes Friday and landed in a three-way tie on the prime of the leaderboard after the primary spherical of the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, Calif.
The American, who’s on the lookout for his first Champions Tour win in his 91st tourney, performed the again 9 first and completed with a 7-under 64 to match Bernhard Langer of Germany and Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain.
Langer is on the lookout for tour historical past, having gained 45 occasions, tied for first all-time with Hale Irwin. He posted 4 birdies in 5 holes at one level on the entrance 9, and a closing birdie allowed him to shoot decrease than his age.
“Well, the course played pretty long, but I got off to a great start, birdied — I was 5 under after eight or something like that, so that was really a hot start. At that point in time, I actually had the thought hopefully can shoot your age or better today,” Langer mentioned. “Played very solid, still had more looks on the back side, but nothing dropped.”
Jimenez went birdie-bogey-birdie-birdie to shut out his spherical as he started pursuit of his 14th profession Champions win.
DiMarco, who completed tied for sixteenth within the Cologuard Classic earlier this month, mentioned he was using some momentum, though he spent the next week doing different issues apart from golf.
“Obviously played a great round in Tucson, the second round, shot 9 under. I’m starting to see it inside me. We went home for a week, we skied a couple days, I didn’t touch a club,” DiMarco mentioned. “Knew I was playing good, knew I was playing good, knew I was putting good. So for me, just going out and kind of firing at pins, and I hit some really good close shots and just kind of built up. It was just one of those rounds, it just added up.”
Doug Barron of the U.S. and Canada’s Mike Weir have been every a shot again, each finishing bogey-free rounds.
Americans Fred Couples and Steve Stricker joined 5 others in a tie for sixth place at 5-under 66. Couples is a two-time Hoag winner (2010, 2014) and has by no means completed exterior the highest 10 all eight occasions he has been in it.
Stricker has gained the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai this season, completed tied for second on the Chubb Classic and tied for eighth within the Cologuard.
Retief Goosen, final yr’s winner at Newport Beach Country Club, is in a tie for twenty eighth at 2-under 69.
–Field Level Media