Cary, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - Guy Boros opened up with a first-round, 6- under 66 on Friday and he holds an early 1-shot lead at the SAS Championship.
Boros has never won on the Champions Tour and he had one career victory on the PGA Tour at the 1996 Greater Vancouver Open. This is only Boros' second career event on the Champions Tour after making his debut at the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship in September.
"It's very nice going from the oldest guy to the youngest guy, it works out very nice," said Boros, who turned 50 on September 4. "The course is very good. The guys still play awful well, so I'm happy to be out here and hopefully I can stay out here and keep playing."
Marco Dawson dropped a shot late and he fell out of a tie for first with Boros. Dawson fired a 5-under 67 at Prestonwood Country Club and he is tied for second with Tom Lehman.
Hale Irwin, the 2005 champion at this event, also had a share of the lead at one point, but a double-bogey on his second-to-last hole had him finish in a tie for fourth at 4-under 68. Irwin was joined there by Larry Mize and Paul Goydos.
Defending champion Russ Cochran carded a 1-under 71 on Friday and he is five shots back of the leader.
Boros had a rather consistent day on both the front and back nine. Boros began his day on the right foot with a birdie at the first. After a pair of pars, Boros drained his second gain on No. 4 to get to minus-2. A trio of pars from No. 5 preceded Boros' third birdie on the par-3 eighth and he ended his front nine with a par on No. 9.
It was more of the same on the back nine from the 50-year-old Boros. After back-to-back pars on 10 and 11, Boros poured in another birdie on No. 12. He finished strong with four pars and two birdies on 15 and 18 to complete his bogey-free first round.
"I played pretty well today. I hit one bad drive on 17 today and I think I might have hit 15 greens," Boros said. "Other than that, made a couple putts which is very nice and always birdieing the last ends the day on a good note."
Dawson, also starting his day on the front nine, rolled in two birdies in his first four holes on two and four. His first bogey on No. 6 did not slow Dawson down as he responded with a pair of birdies on seven and eight. Dawson closed out his 3-under front nine with a par on No. 9.
After two more pars on 10 and 11, Dawson drained an eagle on the par-5 12th to get to minus-5, and he joined Boros atop the leaderboard with another gain on No. 13. Dawson slowed down from there, however, as he made three straight pars before making his second bogey on No. 17 to drop him back a shot. Dawson finished with a par to end one back through 18 holes.
Lehman, beginning his day on the back nine, was very quiet to start before exploding on his final nine. Lehman started out with eight straight pars from No. 10 before making his first birdie on No. 18 as he made the turn at minus-1.
After a par on No. 1, Lehman rattled off five birdies in a six-hole stretch from No. 2. He also bogeyed the par-4 sixth. Lehman closed things out with back-to-back pars on eight and nine to end at minus-5.
Irwin, playing the back nine first, made back-to-back birdies on 10 and 11 before finishing off his front nine with seven straight pars. Irwin was tied for the lead after making birdies on one, two, six and seven, but he tripped to a double-bogey on No. 8 to drop him two shots back, where he ended after a par on nine.
NOTES: Boros tied for 53rd in his first Champions Tour event at the Hawaii Championship ... Dawson has also never won on tour, while Lehman has won nine times ... Tom Byrum had a very up-and-down day, which included four bogeys, a double-bogey, a quadruple-bogey, three birdies and a hole-in-one on the par-3, 168-yard eighth hole.
