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| October 1, 2005 | Saturday | Sha'aban 26, 1426 |
Warren snatches first-round lead
GREENSBORO (North Carolina), Sept 30: Unheralded Charles Warren rode a red-hot putter to a two-stroke lead after the first round of Greensboro Classic on Thursday.
Warren fired 10 birdies in a 10-under-par 62, matching the Forest Oaks course record.
Warren, a lowly 100th on the PGA Tour money list, is in his second season on the tour. He played in 1999, but finished 213th on the money list and lost his card before earning another shot at the big time this year.
He upstaged the better-known KJ Choi of South Korea, who carded 64, while DJ Trahan shot 65.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia, the top-ranked player in the field on the world rankings, opened his campaign with a 69.
Warren said a change in his putting stance had opened the door to his low score. At the behest of his instructor on Wednesday, he opened his stance, and it certainly paid dividends just a day later.
First round scores
62 Charles Warren
64 K.J. Choi
65 D.J. Trahan
66 Tim Clark, John Huston, J.J. Henry, Hidemichi Tanaka
67 John Rollins, Matt Gogel, James Driscoll, Jonathan Byrd, Daniel Chopra Joe Durant,
HOWELL BACK WITH BANG
CARNOUSTIE (Scotland): Ryder Cup hero David Howell further confirmed his remarkable return from injury by taking a share of the first round lead in the £2.7m Links championship on Thursday.
Howell, who suffered an abdominal muscle injury at the US Open the morning after he had tried a heavy practice club belonging to Vijay Singh, now shares the leader with American Rich Beem and Italian Alessandro Tadini.
All three returned cards of five-under-par 67, with Howell’s bid being helped along nicely by a 160-yard shot with his five iron which gave him an eagle two.
After his two-month injury lay-off in what has been his most successful season to date, Howell was expected to ease his way back into competition.
However far from easing his way back into things the 30-year-old Englishman won his third event back, has had four successive top-10 finishes and last week collected four points out of five for Britain and Ireland in their Seve Trophy win.
Leading first round scores:
67 - Rich Beem, David Howell, Alessandro Tadini
68 - Kenneth Ferrie, Bradley Dredge, Keith Horne, Paul Casey, Nick Dougherty, Brett Rumford, Brian Davis, Darren Clarke, Nick O’Hern, Sam Torrance
69 - Simon Dyson, Eduardo Romero, Henrik Stenson, Graeme McDowell, Warren Abery, Ricardo Gonzalez, Simon Khan, Anthony Wall, Peter Baker, Christian Cevaer, Anders Hansen, Philip Golding, Francesco Molinari.—Agencies
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