Los Angeles: Former major champions Retief Goosen and Vijay Singh — who have a combined age of nearly 100 — gave the Northern Trust Open leaderboard a retro feel at Riviera Country Club in California on Thursday.
The two veterans were early pace-setters in the first round of the $6.7 million (Dh24.6 million0 US PGA Tour event and finished the day in a six-way tie for the lead on five-under-par 66.
Singh nabbed six birdies with one bogey while playing partner Goosen had three of his seven birdies in the last six holes on the par-71 Riviera course.
They were joined on five-under by Korean-born American James Hahn, Nick Watney, Daniel Summerhays and Derek Fathauer.
Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz was alone in seventh on four-under 67, with Germany’s Alex Cejka, Australian Geoff Ogilvy and Americans Justin Thomas and William McGirt a further stroke back on 68.
Singh, who will celebrate his 52nd birthday on Sunday, spent 32 straight weeks atop the world rankings in 2004 and 2005 but hasn’t won since 2008.
“I kept my ball in play, hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens and when I did miss, I chipped it real close,” the big Fijian said.
Singh, who has begun to scatter a few events on the Champions Tour for over-50s on his schedule, has battled a string of health problems and admitted it was good to play without pain.
“I’m finally not hurting as much as I did the last five years,” the three-time major winner said. “That’s a big part of playing good golf. You’re not hurting, you can go out and play and you’re comfortable.”
Goosen’s last victory on the US tour was at the 2009 Transitions Championship. The two-time US Open winner has struggled to find full fitness since back surgery in 2012.
“It was nice to play with Vijay,” the 46-year-old South African said. “He played very solid too, and he putted really good. It’s nice that the two old boys played so well. We were sort of feeding off each other.”
