Timonium, MD (My Sportsbook) - Bruce Fleisher, Des Smyth and Phil Blackmar all shot rounds of five-under-par 65 to share the first-round lead Thursday at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship.

The fifth and final major of the Champions Tour season featured a tight leaderboard at the end of the first day at Baltimore Country Club.

Bernhard Langer, Fred Funk, Scott Hoch and Eduardo Romero stood a shot off the co-leaders at four-under 66 to headline a talented chase pack.

Jay Haas and Ben Crenshaw led a group of seven players who sat another stroke further back at 67, while defending champion Loren Roberts (68), John Cook (69), Mark O'Meara (69), Nick Price (70) and Fuzzy Zoeller (70) were also among the 40 players who were within five shots of the co-leaders after Day 1.

Fleisher, sounding a little under the weather on Thursday, is tops among the co-leaders with 18 career victories on the Champions Tour, including the 2001 U.S. Senior Open.

A week before celebrating his 60th birthday, Fleisher made six birdies to go along with just one bogey for his 65.

He did most of his damage on the front nine, collecting four birdies in a row beginning at No. 2. Another birdie at the eighth was followed by his only bogey at No. 10, but Fleisher bounced back with a birdie at the 14th.

"I feel fine," Fleisher said, despite sounding more than a little sick. "It's just a long golf course, a tiring golf course. You have to pace yourself."

Smyth, the two-time Champions Tour winner from Ireland, put together a bogey- free effort for his share of the lead.

He made strides on the front nine, too, picking up birdies at the fourth, fifth and eighth holes to make the turn at three-under. He added birdies at the 11th and 14th holes to become the second player in the clubhouse at five- under.

Smyth took 28 putts in the first round, ranking fifth in the field of 78 players. But he still lamented their toughness.

"You have to be in the right place to feel you can make the putt," said the 55-year-old Irishman. "If you can hit the shots and get them underneath the pin, you can go at them."

Playing in the second-earliest group Thursday, Blackmar, the 51-year-old TV analyst and former three-time PGA Tour winner, made just six pars in his first round.

It made for an interesting scorecard.

Blackmar had four birdies and two bogeys on the front nine -- a so-so start that looked better after he collected an eagle at the par-four 10th, where he holed out with a pitching wedge from 106 yards.

"It was nice to make an eagle there," said Blackmar. "I was playing well going into that hole."

He gained another shot with a birdie at the 11th, but played only even-par the rest of the way with two further birdies and two more bogeys. He rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole for the early clubhouse lead.