Jay Haas, Duffy Waldorf shoot 5-under 66 to share lead in Senior PGA Championship

Jay Haas tees off on the second hole during the first round of the 74th Senior PGA Championship golf tournament at Bellerive Country Club Thursday, May 23, 2013, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) (The Associated Press)

Jay Haas acknowledges the crowd as he walks to the 18th green during the first round of the Senior PGA Championship golf tournament at Bellerive Country Club, Thursday, May 23, 2013, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam) (The Associated Press)

ST. LOUIS – Jay Haas and Duffy Waldorf shared the first-round lead Friday in the Senior PGA Championship, shooting 5-under 66 in breezy, cool conditions at Bellerive Country Club.

The 59-year-old Haas, the winner of the major championship in 2006 and 2008, had a bogey-free round. The 50-year-old Waldorf had six birdies and one bogey.

Haas has 16 Champions Tour victories after winning nine times on the PGA Tour. Waldorf is winless in 11 career starts on the 50-and-over tour after winning four times on the PGA Tour.

Sonny Skinner, the PGA head professional at River Pointe Golf Club in Albany, Ga., was a stroke back along with Japan's Kiyoshi Murota.

Australia's Peter Senior and Taiwan's Chien-Soon Lu shot 68, and Tom Watson, a two-time Senior PGA champion, was another stroke back in a 12-player group that included Kenny Perry, Fred Funk, Rocco Mediate, Russ Cochran, Dan Forsman, Gil Morgan and Bill Glasson.

Defending champion Roger Chapman opened with a 72. Peter Jacobsen, the 2004 U.S. Senior Open winner at Bellerive, had a 75.

The temperature hovered in the low to mid-60s under overcast conditions. A light but steady rain fell three times in the afternoon, with each shower lasting less than 30 minutes.

Haas knows his way around Bellerive, finishing third in the 2004 U.S. Senior Open. He grew up in nearby Belleville, Ill., and has played about 30 rounds at Bellerive. His uncle, Bob Goalby, the 1968 Masters winner who stills lives in Belleville, followed him on the back nine holes.

Haas made his way around the course with a balky back that he said left him in "a little bit" of pain.

Waldorf finished ninth in the 1992 PGA Championship at Bellerive.

Murota had six birdies and a double bogey. Skinner, a two-time winner on what is now the Web.com Tour, had six birdies and two bogeys and hit all 14 fairways in regulation.

DIVOTS: Brian Fogt, the PGA director of instruction at Bellerive Country Club, led off the tournament by hitting the first tee shot. ... The field includes 34 international players representing an event-record 18 countries. France's Marc Farry, who earned a berth when David Frost withdrew, pushed the country total to the record. England leads with seven entrants, followed by Japan (4) and Australia (3). ... The PGA Championship will be held at Bellerive in 2018.