ST. LOUIS -- Craig Stadler's 17th year on the PGA Tour has gone just about the way his skiing vacation went last December.
The 200-pounds-plus Stadler was sliding down a slope at Steamboat Springs, Colo., when his path intersected with a young girl half his size. Guess who got the worst of it?
"I was skiing, I got hit, I got hurt," Stadler recounted. "I was ticked. I think she did a few somersaults, bounced and got up. Kids are made of rubber."
Stadler is made of flesh and blood, and he started off the season nursing an injured shoulder. He played poorly on the West Coast, and even after regaining full health, has been up and down. He has missed cuts, and made cuts, and he has faltered on the weekends and has only three top-10 finishes.
Yesterday, he stayed on his feet in the opening round of the 74th PGA Championship to shoot a 4-under-par 67 at Bellerive Country Club and tie Gene Sauers for the first-round lead.
"The state of my game has been pretty ugly for a while," said Stadler, who ended a seven-year victory drought in 1991 by winning the tour championship. The 1982 Masters is the only major tournament triumph on the resume of the man they call "the Walrus."
"I've played well for a two- to three-week stretch and then have played awful for two, three weeks," Stadler said. "I made the cut for three, four weeks in a row and finish last. The last month, month and a half have not been fun. I kind of hated the way I have been playing, and I have hated golf.
"For some reason, last week I went out and played with my kids a couple of days and worked with the guy [Dick Harmon] who helps me, and that helped."
It must have. Stadler and Sauers broke the course record of 68 set by Kel Nagle and Ray Floyd in the 1965 U.S. Open at the par-71, 7,148-yard layout as unseasonably cool temperatures blessed the opening round. Nevertheless, Bellerive was stingy with low scores; only 11 players broke 70 and only 19 broke par because of its length and thick rough.
British Open champion Nick Faldo, Jay Don Blake and Brian Claar were a shot behind the leaders at 68, and Masters champion Fred Couples, two-time PGA champion Floyd and former Western Open champion Russ Cochran were among a group at 69. Gary Hallberg opened at par 71, as did Australians Greg Norman and Ian Baker-Finch. Five-time champion Jack Nicklaus was at 72, and U.S. Open champion Tom Kite finished at 73.
