ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA. ? Before heading to the first tee Saturday, Doug Tewell spent about half an hour on the driving range adjusting his swing.

Two shots into the round, the work started paying off.

Tewell holed a 6-iron from 173 yards for eagle on the first hole to spark a round of 6-under 66 and give him a one-stroke lead at the Legends of Golf.

“I poured it right at the hole,” Tewell said. “I equate it to NASCAR. The car ran well after I made the adjustment.”

Tewell stood at 9-under 135. He’ll be paired again today with Australia’s Stewart Ginn, who shot 67 to finish one stroke back, and also got a charge out of Tewell’s sizzling start.

“We saw that, and then everyone decided to start firing away at flags, and away we went,” Ginn said.

Another stroke back was Tom Jenkins, who shot the low round of the day (65), to finish tied for third with Hale Irwin (70).

Tewell was two shots behind Dave Eichelberger and playing well last week in Pensacola before storms hit and halted play on the 10th hole. Eichelberger got the rain-shortened victory, and Tewell was left to wonder what might have been.

Not for long.

He’s back in the hunt again, and hoping to become a more familiar face on the Senior PGA Tour, a collection of 50-and-older players that he knows is in need of a new dose of star power.

“I can’t think of much Doug Tewell has done for the senior tour other than pluck about $4 million out of it,” Tewell conceded. “All I can do is put my name up there enough so that people will say, ‘Hey, he’s up there a lot.'”

This is the 25th anniversary for the Legends, the tournament largely credited with spawning the senior tour.

The tournament is being played on the King & Bear Course at World Golf Village, a layout designed by Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, neither of whom are among the “legends” in this 57-player field.

Despite the lack of some of the biggest names, winning the Legends still has its rewards  most notably, the $306,000 first prize, which is the largest on tour so far this season.

Irwin is going for his third victory of the young season. He came into Saturday one stroke off the lead, and finished at 7 under after a round of 70 that could have been better.

The tour’s money leader underclubbed on the par-3 14th and hit into the water. His third shot failed to make it out of the rough and he made double bogey. He finished with two birdies to work his way back up the leaderboard.

Tewell’s only bogey came on the par-5 18th, when he left his lay-up second shot at an awkward distance  48 yards  and had to ease up on a wedge to get the ball over a high bunker, yet still stop on the green. He wound up in the bunker and needed two putts to get down.

“I mis-hit the third shot, I mis-hit the sand shot and I mis-hit the putt,” Tewell said. “Three misses in a row  that’s always bad news.”

Ginn, meanwhile, made birdie on No. 18, and a three-stroke advantage was trimmed to one.

“It’s a game now,” Ginn said. “Now, we’ve just got to go out and play golf tomorrow.”