Lehman's effort to fix poor play provides quick results

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ORLANDO -- Tom Lehman, like all golfers, dislikes poor play.

"I hate to play poorly, I just hate it," he said.

Tom Lehman carded five birdies and a bogey on Thursday. (Cannon/WireImage)

Inside the Numbers

Lehman's First Round

Category Total Rank Eagles 0 N/A Birdies 6 T2 Pars 10 T91 Bogeys 2 T73 Double Bogeys 0 N/A Other 0 N/A Driving Accuracy 78.6% T12 Driving Distance 281.5 yds. T73 Greens in Regulation 66.7 T28 Putts per Round 26.0 T13 Putts per GIR 1.667 T17 Sand Saves 0 N/A

OK. So he more than dislikes it. Problem is, he is discovering like most everybody else that the older you get, the less you can do about it. Unless, that is, you're willing to do nothing else except try to do something about it.

That's not going to happen, not to someone as grounded as Lehman. So it's kind of surprising to see the 49-year-old former British Open champion near the top of the leaderboard at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. After a desultory string of performances on the West Coast, Lehman got back to work and the fruits of his labor turned out to be a 4-under-par 66 Thursday at Bay Hill Club & Lodge.

"I'm an absolute firm believer that if I wanted to and was willing to commit myself to the time that it would take to do it, I could stay out here for quite a while longer," said Lehman, winner of five PGA TOUR titles and the captain of the 2006 U.S. Ryder Cup team. "I have no doubts about that. But the issue is, you know, family, kids, age. Age works against you, and as age works against you, it takes more time to stay physically able to play. So more time working out, more time practicing, and all that means less time for watching your 12-year-old play baseball. So those are all issues that are real life issues.

"So hey, you know, if you had all the time in the world, could you? Absolutely. But who has all the time in the world? You only have 24 hours in a day. At some point the priorities outweigh one or the other."

True enough, but everyone has a little pride in him, too. And there is competitive fire, which Lehman has never lacked.

So instead of simply accepting poor results -- he missed three of five cuts and was outside the top 50 in the other two -- Lehman went back to work. Lo and behold, his fortunes dramatically improved at a place where he has four top-10 finishes, including runner-up in 1999.

"The ability to play good golf is always there no matter how old you are. It just seems that it gets more difficult to do it consistently," Lehman said after traversing Bay Hill suffering just one bogey against five birdies, including a 7-footer at the treacherous 18th to sit a stroke behind co-leaders Fred Couples and J.J. Henry. "I can play extremely well at times, but I don't play extremely well for extended periods of time like I used to. I'm not sure what that is, but there's just days that I don't feel as good."

Lehman obviously felt fine Thursday on a day filled with sunshine and mild breezes. His success was a vast departure from recent results as he posted his best score since an opening 66 last May at the Crowne Plaza Invitational.

"I play well here generally. I like the course. It seems to fit my game. It fits my eye," said Lehman, who lost to fellow Minnesota native Tim Herron in a playoff in '99. "I like the way it looks. And I've played here a lot, so I've learned how to play it. I've seen it all different wind directions; and when the wind is blowing from this direction, it's a 3 wood, and if it's not, it's a driver. ... You learn where to play your shots and where you can't hit."

Since his last start at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club, Lehman has been working on hitting it better with the help of close friend and former TOUR player Dennis Trixler, who visited him in Scottsdale, Ariz., for a few days. Lehman wasn't desperate, just feeling dyspeptic.

"He knows my game very well, and I asked him to come and visit me ... I told him I was struggling so much with my game, and not hitting it solid, not making any putts, and couldn't even hit a chip solid, which is very unusual for me," Lehman said.

Trixler figured out Lehman's problem -- a reverse pivot that was making his head dip on the backswing. It was a simple thing that led to complex problems. That flaw removed, he's swinging well again and hopeful for the rest of the week.

"The first five weeks of the year," Lehman said, "was a comedy of errors. Sometimes you just have to try to figure out, 'where do I have to go from here?' And me it's always the same things. You go back to the simple little things, and just take care of the small things. If I can do the small things right, you know, then the big things will take care of themselves."