Zoeller, Streck share Senior Players lead

The rain-soaked TPC of Michigan is playing much easier for the pros.
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- Jay Haas was content opening the Senior Players Championship with a 68, though he predicted his stay near the top of the leaderboard would be short.
In the afternoon, two players did exactly what Haas expected.
Fuzzy Zoeller and Ron Streck shot a 7-under 65s on Thursday, taking the first-round lead at one of the Champion Tour's five majors.
Following the U.S. Senior Open last week at the unforgiving Prairie Dunes in Kansas, Zoeller and Co. enjoyed firing at pins after sending drives into fairways.
Heavy rain soaked the TPC of Michigan earlier in the week, making the Jack Nicklaus-designed course ready to surrender birdies.
"When you get our age, 50 and over, standing at 125 yards with a pitching wedge knowing when it hits it's not going to go 135 yards because of the green, that's an advantage," Zoeller said. "The greens are very receptive because they are soft.
"The fairways look like they're 90 miles wide."
Trio tied for third
Jim Thorpe, Bruce Lietzke and Scott Simpson shot 67s, leaving them two strokes back in the third of five majors -- and the second of three straight -- on the Champions Tour.
Allen Doyle, coming off his second consecutive U.S. Senior Open title, was in a group of six at 68 that included Haas and Tom Kite. Tom Watson and Fred Funk were another stroke back, and defending champion Peter Jacobsen shot a 70.
Though he tied for 23rd in the U.S. Senior Open, Zoeller said he played well in spurts and that helped him feel confident about playing an easier course.
Zoeller had only one bogey and eight birdies, one with a 36-foot putt, for a round strong enough to catch Streck, who surged to the top of the leaderboard with five straight birdies -- one short of the tournament record -- from Nos. 13-17.
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