Rain will make long Tahoe course play longer

By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press Writer

RENO, Nev. (AP) At 7,472 yards, the Reno-Tahoe Open's Montreux Golf and Country Club is the third longest course on the PGA Tour behind the International's Castle Pines (7,559) and the Shell Houston Open's Redstone Golf Club (7,508).

Historically, it hasn't really played that long because it sits on the edge of the Sierra Nevada at an elevation of about 5,500 feet, which means the ball travels about 7 percent to 10 percent farther in the thin mountain air.

But Thursday's heavy rain is likely to change all that.

``The course was starting to firm up Tuesday and Wednesday. Now it's going to be a slugfest because the course is going to play long,'' said Kirk Triplett, who played his college golf at the University of Nevada, Reno.

``It's going to be more hit it as hard as you can off the tee and hit it at the pin,'' he said.

Steve Pate was one of the early first-round co-leaders with Triplett and three others at 67, but he said the Jack Nicklaus-designed course was already playing tough enough for him.

``I don't think this is an easy golf course. You can certainly make a lot of birdies but there are a lot of holes where you can hit a shot that is not that bad and make a double bogey in a heartbeat,'' Pate said.

``It's hard to dial in yardage with your irons out here. I'm not used to playing at 6,000 feet,'' he said.

Bob Tway, another first-round co-leader, said he's always enjoyed playing Castle Pines and Montreux.

``It's a beautiful, beautiful place, a beautiful golf course. It's like the International, same type of course,'' he said Thursday.

``You've got to do a little bit more multiplication and adding and subtracting in your head at these two places and maybe it makes you think a little bit more.''

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CHILI DIPPING: Play was stopped the first time Thursday at 12:38 p.m. and didn't resume until 3:10 p.m. It was called off for good for the day about 5 p.m. So what do the players do to kill the time?

``Ate,'' said Pate. ``Brisket, sausage, a little bit of a deli sandwich. They had a nice chili barbecue sauce, it was good too.''

Triplett said he sat in the lockeroom and did ``the same thing we always do tell the same stories over and over.''

Stankowski, another co-leader making only his second start since May while recovering from wrist surgery, said he was bored.

``I've been sitting for three months, I didn't want to stop,'' he said.

Pate was stopped the first time with only one hole to play, but was able to get it in after the first suspension.

``It's certainly nice to be finished. I certainly would have been unhappy to have to come out here at 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning to play one hole,'' he said.

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WILD PITCH: Stankowski missed golf, but said he enjoyed most of the summer at home in Dallas, relaxing and going to baseball games with his wife, Regina, and son, Joshua, who just turned 4 years old.

``I got to do a lot of fun stuff with him, going to a lot of baseball games and just being a dad living kind of a normal life for a change,'' he said.

He also spent time ``buying a lot of stuff on e-Bay,'' including old baseball jerseys and ticket stubs.

``When I'm winning auctions, I figured I had to get back on tour to pay for my habit. My wife kicked me out the door and said, `Go play.'''

Stankowski grew up in Southern California as a Los Angeles Dodgers fan and now roots for the Texas Rangers. Last Sunday, he threw out the opening pitch at a Rangers' game.

``I threw it as hard as I could. It hit the backstop. I almost killed the cameraman. It was embarrassing but I'm a golfer,'' he said.

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CADDIE SLACKED: Andy Miller, the son of golf great Johnny Miller who is also tied for the first-round lead, ended up recruiting a caddie out of the gallery after his regular caddie Jeremy McAlister failed to make it to the course in time for his 8:34 a.m. tee time.

``I love the guy, he's been a good friend. ... But he wasn't feeling well this morning, couldn't make it out of bed,'' Miller said, without further explanation. He said McAlister would be back on the bag Friday.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)