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FORT WORTH (Texas), May 20: American Kenny Perry fired a five-under 65 to grab the clubhouse lead at the $5.6 million Colonial tournament here on Thursday. Playing the back nine first at the Colonial Country Club, Perry, the winner at the Bay Hill Invitational earlier this year, was poised for a perfect start to the tournament until a bogey on his second last hole left him one stroke clear of a group of other earlier finishers at four-under.
Patrick Sheehan was enjoying a spectacular start to his round with birdies on five of his first six holes to join Perry at the top of the leaderboard.
Leading the group at four-under is last week’s winner of the Byron Nelson championship Ted Purdy, who mixed three birdies and an eagle with a single bogey for his 66.
Leading first round scores:
62 — Patrick Sheehan (US).
64 — Brian Bateman (US); D.J. Trahan (US).
65 — Kenny Perry (US); Brandt Jobe (US); Kevin Na (South Korea).
66 — Stephen Leaney (Australia); Ted Purdy (US); Kirk Triplett (US); Harrison Frazar (US); Rod Pampling (Australia).
67 — Billy Mayfair (US); Jonathan Byrd (US); Justin Leonard (US); Rory Sabbatini (South Africa); Skip Kendall (US); Bob Tway (US).
LEAD SHARED
MAYNOOTH (Ireland): Briton Nick Dougherty and Sweden’s Klas Eriksson fashioned four-under-par 68s to lead the Irish Open by a stroke after Thursday’s first round.
It was a tough day for Simon Khan who incurred the European Tour’s record fine for slow play, 8,000 pounds ($14,720), for taking 16 seconds too long to play his tee-shot at the 17th.
He shrugged off his woes by shooting a 70 to earlier lie only one shot off the pace but Dougherty and Eriksson’s afternoon rounds left him two shots adrift.
Dougherty, 22, the Singapore Masters winner in January, had an eagle on the eighth and caught Eriksson by birdieing three of the last six holes.
Leading first round scores:
68 — Nick Dougherty (Britain); Klas Eriksson (Sweden).
69 — Stephen Dodd (Britain); Mattias Eliasson (Sweden); Colm Moriarty (Ireland); Peter O’Malley (Australia).
70 — Darren Clarke (Britain); David Howell (Britain); Simon Khan (Britain); Damian Mooney (Britain); Rolf Muntz (Netherlands); Lee Westwood (Britain).
71 — Angel Cabrera (Argentina); Marc Cayeux (Zimbabwe); Scott Drummond (Britain); Simon Dyson (Britain); Richard Finch (Britain).—Reuters
