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SAN ANTONIO —
Champions Tour rookies Keith Clearwater and Russ Cochran and shot
5-under 66s on Friday to share the first-round lead in the AT&T
Championship, the final full-field event of the season.
Tom Kite, looking for
his first home-state win as a professional, was a stroke back along
with fellow Texan Ben Crenshaw, Mark O'Meara and Andy Bean.
Clearwater, who won
his two PGA Tour titles in 1987, is making his fifth Champions Tour
start after turning 50 in August. He eagled the par-15th hole and
had five birdies and two bogeys on the Oak Hills Country Club
course.
"I feel like my
game is great, but I need a few more times to play," Clearwater
said. "My putting is non-competitive right now, but it's just a
matter of playing and getting my instincts back. ... I still think
I'm better than most people think. I still think I'm as good as
anybody and I working hard to prove it."
Cochran, the
left-hander who won the 1991 Western Open for his lone PGA Tour
title, had six birdies and a bogey. He was third in the U.S. Senior
Open and has three top-five finishes in 14 events this season.
Kite, from Austin,
birdied Nos. 14-17 to move up the leaderboard.
"You always want
to play well near your friends," he said.
Two-time defending
champion John Cook opened with a 68.
"I've been
comfortable here," Cook said. "It's just a course that
fits my eye."
Jay Haas, Bob Tway,
David Eger, Mike Goodes, Scott Simpson, Craig Stadler, Mike Reid and
Tim Simpson also shot 68s. Haas won the 2005 event and took the PGA
Tour's Texas Open in 1982 and 1993 at A.W. Tillinghast-designed Oak
Hills.
The top 30 on the
money list after the event will advance to the season-ending Charles
Schwab Cup Championship next week in Sonoma, Calif.
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