MADISON, Wisconsin – Steve Stricker, humbly, said he hoped his excellent play of late would continue at his own tournament Friday afternoon at University Ridge Golf Course in Madison, and give him a chance to win the American Family Insurance Championship for the first time.
Stricker did indeed play well – but he had to take a back seat to Justin Leonard, who shot a course-record 10-under par 62 to take the first-day lead. Leonard, 50, made a raucous debut at the AmFam Championship with a flawless round, where he did not record a bogey and played to the crowd as his 10th birdie was poured in on the 17th hole.
“I didn’t play with any kind of score in mind. In fact, I got in the scoring trailer and the group that finished on 9, Tom Lehman asked me what I shot, I said I don’t know,” said Leonard, who is in position to win his first individual event on the PGA Tour Champions. “That’s kind of the goal is just to get lost in the round. I was able to do that kind of on the weekend of the Senior PGA and fortunately it bridged over that two weeks into today.”
While on the PGA Tour, Leonard carded a career-low 61 during tournament rounds in 2001 (Byron Nelson Classic) and 2003 (Colonial).
“I don’t know if I’m going to hit the ball as well every day as I did today, but certainly put myself in the mindset where I’m able to do this much more often than once every 20 years,” he quipped.
As for Stricker, stellar shot-making and consistent putting has not been a mere wish and a thought, as the Madison resident broke Tiger Woods’ PGA Tour-sanctioned record of consecutive rounds at par or better in Friday’s opening round with a 7-under 65.
Beginning at the 2022 US Senior Open, Stricker has now gone 53 straight Tour Champions rounds without a round over par. Woods won 52 straight rounds on the PGA Tour from 2000-01.
“I saw Justin Leonard going deep so that motivates me to get as many birdies as I can because you don’t want to fall too far behind,” Stricker said. “So, it wasn’t really on my mind but anytime you can pass Tiger Woods in something – and I may text him and just remind him that I did pass him – but seriously, I’m proud of that. I would have rather done that on the regular tour, but to do it out here is really special, too.”
Stricker acknowledged before the tournament that the event means a lot to him, but as its host the social and corporate requirements have been something to learn how to manage. At least for the first round, it looked like he did a good job of it this week.
He then joked he needed to keep that focus Friday night at the annual concert the tournament hosts.
“Well, I’m going to go to the concert, first of all, but I already told myself there’s a limit,” he said. “I’m not telling you what the limit is, but there’s a limit. There’s more than one but less than six.
“But no, we have friends coming. It’s just a great atmosphere to be a part of and go there and see some of my friends and people and see everybody enjoying what’s going on here, so it’s hard not to participate in what we’ve got going tonight. So I’ll be there, but I’ve learned my lesson.”
Stricker is in a group of six players packed within four shots of Leonard. Paul Broadhurst, Marco Dawson and Steven Alker joined Stricker at 7-under while Paul Stankowski and Charlie Wi finished at 6-under.
Colin Montgomerie, David McKenzie and Davis Love III are Leonard’s back five.
Two-time tournament champion and fellow Madison resident Jerry Kelly finished with an even-par 72 after putting an old set of irons back in his bag. He made the turn at 1-over and managed two birdies on the back nine against one bogey.
“I sucked,” he said. “It was not very good. I don’t know where the game went, but it definitely went and I couldn’t find it the whole day. Couldn’t even chip, putt, everything was gone. I’ll do a little work here, see what happens.”
Milwaukee native Skip Kendall shot a 2-under 70 while Madison’s Mario Tiziani opened with a 3-over 75.
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Story originally appeared on GolfWeek