Associated Press
Friday, July 28

JERICHO, N.Y. -- Defending champion Bruce Fleisher shot a 9-under 63 Friday to break the course record and take a one-stroke lead over Dana Quigley after one round of the Long Island Classic.

	Fleisher birdied all four par-5s during his record round.

Fleisher won seven times as a rookie on the Senior Tour last year, and he already has defended two of those titles successfully. He has three wins overall this year on the tour.

He didn't have a bogey Friday and finished with three straight birdies to break the record he tied in last year's first round at Meadow Brook Club.

"The course didn't have a lot of defense today because of the conditions," Fleisher said, referring to four inches of rain which fell on Long Island on Wednesday and Thursday, forcing cancellation of pro-ams on both days. "The greens held very well. You could fire at most of the pins."

Quigley, who won here in 1997 for his first tournament victory, described his round as "probably as perfect a round as I've played in my life."

"Forget pretty good, that was sensational," he said. "I hit every fairway and every green."

Quigley finished with a 64 and the clubhouse lead for about 20 minutes. Then Fleisher, playing two groups behind, closed out his 63.

"Fleisher is so tough, so good," Quigley said. "He'll be tough, but it won't take two more 8-unders to beat him, that's for sure."

David Lundstrom, who has four top-10 finishes this year, was alone in third after a 66. Ray Floyd, who won the Senior Players Championship two weeks ago for his first victory in four years, and Tommy Aaron both had 67s.

Graham Marsh, Jim Colbert, Allen Doyle, Gary McCord, Jim Thorpe and Frank Conner were all at 68 as the field of 78 took advantage of the soft fairways and greens and lack of wind to post 62 scores of par or better in the tournament sponsored by Lightpath.

Fleisher and Quigley agreed the lack of practice time because of the rain may have helped.

"I felt relaxed," said Fleisher, who had only one putt longer than 15 feet among his nine birdies. "I played nine holes Tuesday and that was the last time on the golf course. I think most of us expected the unexpected."

Quigley's 5-under 31 on the back nine was capped by a 12-foot birdie putt on the closing par-3. He and Fleisher, who made his closing birdie from about the same distance, both said they were trying to lag the putt close to the hole.

"That might have been a little gift there. It was really starting to move when it went in," Quigley said.

Quigley, who has one victory and 12 other top-10 finishes this year, is playing in his 101st consecutive tour event.

"I didn't play two days last week because of my bad knee, and I didn't play two days this week because of the rain," he said. "Maybe I better start taking some time off during the week."

He hasn't given any thought, however, to ending his ironman streak.

"What else would I do?" he asked. "I have no life. Golf is my life. There's just too much enjoyment to take a week off. If I did, I'd only play golf. Golf is in my blood."