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Seven share Tradition lead

Golf Betting Lines

08/14/2008 - Bend, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jay Haas and defending champion Mark McNulty were among seven players to shoot five-under 67 on Thursday and share the first- round lead of The Tradition.

Craig Stadler, Gene Jones, Mark Wiebe, Tim Simpson and David Eger also sat atop the leaderboard at the Champions Tour's fourth major of the year at Crosswater Golf Club at Sunriver Resort.

Forty-six of the 67 players who teed it up on Thursday shot par or better.

Haas, second on the Champions Tour money list and the winner of this year's Senior PGA Championship, started with a birdie at the first. He collected back-to-back birdies from the fifth, then parred his next four around the turn.

Haas, who has battled hamstring issues lately, rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt at the 11th to get to four-under. He tied for the lead after a nine-footer for birdie at 12.

The reigning Champions Tour Player of the Year parred his remaining holes for his share of first.

"Last year, I didn't play very well here," said Haas. "I felt like this year I needed to come out and fire away and not play too conservatively. I'm hitting the ball pretty well. Five-under, I'm pretty happy with that."

McNulty was only one-under when he made the turn thanks to a pair of birdies and a bogey at the eighth. The defending champion birdied two in a row from the 12th and added another birdie at 15 to get to four-under par for the championship.

At the closing hole, McNulty hit a good approach 25 feet from the stick. He drained the putt to get into the logjam atop the leaderboard.

"I played nice and steady," said McNulty. "I drove the ball well. Hit some nice, quality iron shots. I'm pretty much on track with what my game's like. I balanced it all out."

Stadler, who accumulated eight wins in 2003-04, but has not visited the winner's circle since, was the only player in the field to reach seven-under par.

He tallied seven birdies over 17 holes, including a short one at the par-three 17th. At the last, Stadler's second landed in a greenside bunker. He blasted out to 50 feet and three-putted from there for a double-bogey six.

Jones also made the turn at one-under, then ran off four straight birdies from the 10th. He birdied the par-four 15th to get to six-under par.

Jones, who has three top-fives in his last four starts, missed a six-footer for par at the last to fall into a tie for the lead.

Wiebe did all of his damage on the front side. He birdied the first and picked up four in a row from the fourth. Wiebe parred his last 11 holes to hang on to a piece of first.

Simpson birdied the last for first and Eger netted five birdies on the back nine for his share of the lead.

Hale Irwin, Joe Ozaki, Massy Kuramoto, Mike Goodes, D.A. Weibring, R.W. Eaks and the Champions Tour's leading money winner Bernhard Langer share eighth place at four-under 68.

Irwin can join Jack Nicklaus in exclusive company with a win this week. Irwin would match Nicklaus in the all-time lead in Champions Tour majors with eight and the two would be the only two players to win four different majors on the elder circuit.

Bruce Vaughan, the Senior British Open champion, shot a one-under 71 and is tied for 27th place.

Eduardo Romero, who captured the U.S. Senior Open two weeks ago, struggled to a two-over 74 on Thursday and is part of a group tied for 52nd place.