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| January 20, 2006 | Friday | Zilhaj 19, 1426 |
Golf : Singh two shots off the pace
ABU DHABI, Jan 19: Little known South African Keith Horne took on some of the world’s best and left them trailing in his wake as he shot an opening six-under 66 course record in the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship here on Thursday.
It put him two shots clear of world number two Vijay Singh, Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez and Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee.
Two shots further back was world number six Sergio Garcia.
The 34-year-old Horne made the most of his early start, he was fourth out, missing out on the wind than began growing as the day went on.
“It was very good, I just tried to play a good round of golf and not think of anything else,” said Horne, who plies his trade on the Sunshine and Asian Tours.
Horne, who will play in the afternoon wind on Friday, says he is looking forward to it blowing.
Singh, who is attempting to catch Tiger Woods and regain the world number one spot, admitted the wind had troubled him.
Thongchai also missed several birdie chances but admitted that ‘lady luck’ helped him over the final stretch.
Thongchai shrugged off the three putt on his final hole.
Leading first round scores:
66 - Keith Horne.
68 - Vijay Singh, Ricardo Gonzales, Thongchai Jaidee.
69 - Hendrik Stenson, Charl Schwartzel, David Lynn, Peter Gufstafsson.
70 - Alastair Forsyth, Peter Fowler, Jose-Filipe Lima, Richard Green, Damien McGrane, Gonzalo Fernandez-Casta, Sergio Garcia, Gregory Havret, Soren Hansen, Ignacio Garrido, Richard Bland, Miguel Angel Jiminez.
71 - Mark Forster, Francois Delamontagne, Costantino Rocca, Jamie Spence, Jose Manuel Lara, Jyoti Randhawa, Andrew McLardy, Marc Cayeux, Jean Francois Lucquin.
72 - Oliver Wilson, Gordon Brand Jnr, Darren Fischart, Graeme Storm, Chris DiMarco, Stuart Little, Soren Kjeldsen, Colin Montgomerie, John Daly, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Mikael Lundberg.
Perez fires sizzling 60: Pat Perez was on fire in the desert on Wednesday, shooting a sizzling 60 to seize a three-shot lead in the first round of the Bob Hope Classic.
In a field notably lacking in star-power, Perez made sure there was plenty of drama on the opening day of this five-round event played on four desert courses, flirting with the golf grail of 59 before settling for a 12-under effort.
Perez’s flawless round came at the Arnold Palmer Private Course at PGA West and was the best opening round at the event since David Edwards shot a 61 in 1987.
The scintillating performance came at the same course that saw David Duval shoot 59 at in 1999. In fact, of the 20 rounds at 60 or better in PGA Tour history, three have come at the same course.
But Perez certainly didn’t arrive at the first tee expecting fireworks, having battled a stomach ailment overnight.
60 - Pat Perez
63 - Chad Campbell
64 - Steve Elkington
65 - Olin Browne, John Huston, Tom Pernice
66 - Lucas Glover, Phil Mickelson, Joe Ogilvie, Patrick Sheehan
67 - Stephen Ames, Tommy Armour, Steve Flesch, Richard S. Johnson, Justin Leonard, JL Lewis, Jeff Maggert, Shaun Micheel, John Rollins, Joey Sindelar, Mike Weir.—Agencies
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