Seniors Teed Off by Early Starting Times : Golf: They are also upset at playing from long tees. Bruce Crampton and Bobby Nichols both shoot 71 to share the lead.

CARLSBAD — Some players on the Senior PGA Tour feel they are being treated like second-class golfers this week in the MONY Tournament of Champions.

The event is the only one in which the old-timers play concurrently with the regular PGA Tour.

The seniors’ major complaint is getting up before dawn to play in the early morning. There is also the matter of the tee markers. Some players, including defending champion Miller Barber, don’t think they should be playing from the same tees as the “juniors.”

On Thursday, the entire field of 20 seniors teed off before any of the other golfers began play in the first round of the tournament over the 7,022-yard La Costa Country Club.

Barber and Larry Mowry were scheduled to open the 72-hole event at 8:02 a.m. Fortunately for them, there was a 30-minute delay because of frozen greens.

Despite the problems, there were some members of the 50-and-over set who played first-class golf. Bruce Crampton, fighting back from a strange double bogey on the first hole, and Bobby Nichols tied for the lead with one-under-par 71s. Barber and Butch Baird were at par, and four others--Chi Chi Rodriguez, Don Bies, George Archer and Gene Littler--had 73s.

Crampton pushed his drive on the first hole into a tree in the right rough. The ball never came down. Crampton was able to identify the ball, so it was only a one-stroke penalty. He missed a six-foot bogey putt.

After that, Crampton played the best golf of the seniors. He almost sank a sand wedge from 60 yards for an eagle on the sixth hole.

Nichols, among the younger seniors at 53, said he was worn out at the finish. He was three under par after eight holes but finished with five birdies and four pars.

Despite having a share of the lead, Crampton agreed with the criticisms of the early tee times.

“I think it was an affront to Miller, the defending champion,” Crampton said. “He shouldn’t have to start so early. If it was on television, I could understand it. We start early in the Vintage because of TV. The first two days we should start later, even if we started on No. 10.”

Barber wasn’t happy with his 72, which included four birdies and a double bogey on the 450-yard, par-four 10th.

“It’s not right,” he said. “The starting time is ridiculous, and the course is too long. Somebody apparently doesn’t realize that we aren’t competing with the guys on the regular tour.

“Some of the holes are just too long for us. Take the 10th. You have to hit a very long drive just to have a chance to reach in two. Most of us overswing and get into trouble. Yesterday, I hit a good drive, then a good two-iron, and I was still short on the fringe. Today, I pulled it into trouble.

“I feel like we are second-class citizens. Of course, it’s just my opinion. I had to get up at 5:45. Ask some of the others.”

Mowry, who flew the 16th into mud with his second shot and a triple bogey that led to a 74, agreed with Barber.

“I have been trying to tell them for a couple of years that the first two days we should not have to start early,” Mowry said. “Almost all of us on the senior tour have arthritic problems. I have it in both shoulders and my neck. My doctor tells me to stay out of the cold weather.”

Arnold Palmer, who didn’t win a tournament last year and didn’t qualify for this event, finally won his battle over same tee placements for both groups.

Last year, Palmer and his playing partner, Harold Henning, used the regular tees on the second hole of the second round. They drew two-stroke penalties, and Palmer angrily chastised the PGA Tour for not using the same tees for both groups.

Rodriguez refused to find fault, although his neck, which had not bothered him since September, was stiff and tight in the cold. “I don’t have any complaint. We’re just lucky to be around,” he said.

“They must be doing something right because we now have a $16-million tour. How can we complain?

“I’ll tell you one thing, though. If I reach the 10th hole on my second shot with an iron, I’ll grow hair on my body.”