Jacobsen Quickly Takes the Initiative

Peter Jacobsen’s initiation to the Champions Tour this week has included singing the Oregon fight song three times, cleaning Ben Crenshaw’s shoes, changing J.C. Snead’s spikes and getting a wedgie from Bruce Lietzke.

So Jacobsen got revenge the best way he knew. In his Champions Tour debut, Jacobsen birdied the final two holes Friday in the SBC Classic at Valencia Country Club, shot five-under 67 and was among five players tied for the lead.

Craig Stadler, Gil Morgan, Mike McCullough and Don Pooley also shot 67. Defending champion Tom Purtzer was among a group of four who shot 68, and Hale Irwin and Tom Kite were among a group of six who were two behind.

There were 20 players within three shots, but Jacobsen, as he has all week, stole the show. Most of the pre-tournament promotions have featured Jacobsen. He has been in magazines, newspapers and on television so much fellow competitors have dubbed this “Peter Jacobsen Week.” The good start may help him earn that distinction another way.

“I really didn’t have any expectations,” said Jacobsen, an Oregon alumnus. “It probably would have been different if I hadn’t played the [PGA] tour the last 10 years, but I’ve been playing the tour right to this week. So it was kind of golf as usual.”

Jacobsen birdied three of his first five holes. On the first, he drove in the fairway, then reached the 521-yard par-five with a six-iron second shot. He two-putted for birdie.

Morgan, who finished second and third at Valencia in 2003 and ’02 and has two Champions Tour and two PGA Tour victories in the Los Angeles area, was not surprised to see Jacobsen atop the leaderboard.

“I think most of the time when a guy has been a pretty good player on the regular tour, you expect that,” Morgan said of Jacobsen, who won one PGA Tour event last year and seven overall. “You’re excited about an opportunity you haven’t had before. You’re excited about playing, you’re interested in playing. So usually the first year or so, a competent player, a good player, will do well.”

Stadler, a three-time winner as a rookie last year, said the Champions Tour is more relaxing and helped him play well in his first year. He got off to a hot start Friday with five birdies in his first 10 holes, but he had trouble controlling the distance on his wedges during most of the back nine and didn’t make another birdie.

“It could have been a pretty low day, but you certainly aren’t displeased with a 67 at all,” Stadler said.

Jacobsen, who mugged for the camera, stopped for on-course interviews and played to the crowd as usual, had seven birdies to go with two bogeys, but he also missed four birdie putts inside six feet.

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Rodger Davis, defending champion of next week’s tournament at Newport Beach Country Club, withdrew on the 13th tee after experiencing chest pains. He was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, where doctors diagnosed allergies, but he stayed overnight for observation.