GOLF ROUNDUP Perks has Colonial lead over Parnevik
Three golfers shared the first round lead in the LPGA Sybase Classic.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Craig Perks had a bogey-free 6-under 64, including two chip-in birdies, and took the first-round lead Thursday at the Colonial.
He led by a stroke over Jesper Parnevik, another golfer looking for a big comeback.
Steve Flesch, who had birdies on four of his first five holes, and Stewart Cink were among five golfers at 66.
Defending champion Kenny Perry shot 67, his Colonial-record eighth straight subpar round.
Missing from Hogan's Alley are Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam, who at last year's Colonial became the first woman in 58 years to play on the PGA Tour.
Phil Mickelson, the Colonial's highest-ranked player (No. 2 on the money list) and 2000 champion, opened with a 71.
Golf has been a struggle for Perks since his only PGA win at the 2002 Players in what many consider the tour's fifth major.
In 2003, Perks had no top-10 finishes and made just 12 of 28 cuts. Before playing last weekend in the Byron Nelson Championship, he had missed 10 of 12 cuts this year, including six in a row while shooting 75 of worse in eight of those rounds.
LPGA
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. -- Silvia Cavalleri, Nadina Taylor and Young-A Yang each shot 5-under-par 66s to tie for the first-round lead at the Sybase Classic.
All three are trying to finish in the top 20 of a tournament for the first time this year.
One shot back are Becky Morgan, Sherri Steinhauer and Soo-Yun Kang. Amy Hung had a 68. Candy Hannemann, Michele Redman, Chiharu Yamaguchi, Rachel Teske and Grace Park carded 69s.
Cavalleri has made four cuts this season with a tie for 21st her best finish.
Taylor has matched that cut number but hasn't managed better than a tie for 37th. Yang has missed five of seven cuts and her best finish was a tie for 71st.
Five of Taylor's six birdies on the 6,161-yard Wykagyl Country Club course came on birdie putts of 12 to 15 feet.
Cavalleri, who has had four top-10 finishes in her five years on tour, had seven birdies and two bogeys and was the only player in the field to reach 6-under. She said the difference in the course was both good and bad.
Yang holed out from a bunker on one par-3 and made a 20-footer on another for two of her six birdies.