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MELBOURNE, Dec 4: Defending champion Peter Lonard shot a six-under-par 66 to share the first-round lead with Marcus Cain in the Australian Masters on Thursday.
Lonard, the world number 41 after four top-10 finishes in his rookie season on the U.S. PGA Tour, fired eight birdies at Melbourne’s Huntingdale course.
His two blemishes were on the par-three 15th hole and the par-four 18th, where he found a fairway bunker and had to chip out before two-putting.
Leading first round scores:
66 Marcus Cain, Peter Lonard
67 Peter Senior, Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Allenby, Jarrod Moseley
68 Steven Bowditch, John Senden, Nick O’Hern, Brad Lamb, Adrian Percey
69 Adam Crawford, Rod Pampling, Nathan Kent, Matthew Ecob, Richard Ball, Peter O’Malley, Peter Fowler, Mark Allen
McEvoy leads
HONG KONG: England’s Richard McEvoy made a sensational start to his first full season on the European Tour when he stormed to the first round lead in the $700,000 Hong Kong Open on Thursday.
McEvoy, who won Europe’s Qualifying School last month, fired an eight-under-par 62 to take a four-shot lead in the joint-sanctioned event which is the opening leg of the 2004 European Tour.
Leading first round scores
62 - Richard McEvoy
66 - Steven O’Hara Amandeep Johl
67 - Zhang Lian-wei, Kim Felton, Barry Lane, Padraig Harrington, Michael Campbell, Prayad Marksaeng, Desvonde Botes, Edward Loar.
68 - Tsai Chi-Huang, Jose Maria Olazabal, Fredrik Jacobson, Nobuhito Sato, David Geall, Harmeet Kahlon, Peter Hanson, Derek Fung, Christopher Hanell, Matthew Cort, Steve Jeppsen, Wang Ter-chang, Hennie Otto, Gary Rusnak, Darren Clarke, Jason Knutzon, Shaun Webster.—Agencies
