McDowell has shot lead for PGA in New Orleans

Cristie Kerr holds a two-stroke lead after one round in the LPGA event.
ASSSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS -- Graeme McDowell finished off a flawless round in easy conditions at English Turn onThursday by one-hopping a wedge from 116 yards into the cup for eagle on the ninth hole, giving him an 8-under 64 for a one-shot lead over Stuart Appleby.
It took just that to keep Appleby from leading a PGA Tour event for the fifth consecutive round.
Coming off a wire-to-wire victory last week in the Houston Open, he again made it look easy by never coming seriously close to bogey and hitting a wedge into 4 feet for birdie on the 18th hole for a 65.
And it took an eagle from McDowell to get a small measure of separation from a jam-packed leaderboard, brought on by soft, slow conditions on a course that played so easy that McDowell found himself reaching for a wedge on nearly every hole.
Among par-72 courses used by the PGA Tour, the 7,116-yard English Turn is the third-shortest behind only the cleverly designed TPC at Sawgrass for The Players Championship and the course used for the B.C. Open. Throw in heavy rain Wednesday that made the greens soft, and wind that disappeared after the first few hours of a sunny morning, and this was a friendly day of golf.
Ten players were in the group at 66, including two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, who made a late bogey with his best swing of the day, a 5-iron that cut through the breeze and went over the 17th green.
LPGA
REUNION, Fla. -- Laura Diaz shot a 5-under 67 in the opening round of the Ginn Clubs & amp; Resorts Open, her first round under par this year.
Diaz was tied for second with Lorena Ochoa, two strokes behind leader Cristie Kerr after a windy day near Orlando.
Diaz may have been on top of the leaderboard, but she was somewhat off the radar.
Dakoda Dowd, a 13-year-old playing the event to fulfill her cancer-stricken mother's dying wish, shot a 74 while being tailed by television cameras, photographers, reporters and well-wishers.
Dowd birdied her first hole, the par-5 10th, after hitting her tee shot down the left-center part of the fairway and then knocking her third shot to 2 feet.