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SUTTON COLDFIELD (England), May 10: Britain’s Greg Owen equalled the course record with a six-under-par 66 at The Belfry on Thursday to charge into a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Benson and Hedges International.
Owen collected seven birdies with just one dropped shot to head 1991 US Masters winner Ian Woosnam by a stroke. Three players were on four-under, Britons David Carter and Anthony Wall and Argentine Angel Cabrera.
A quick fix on his driving after missing the cut in the French Open last week saw Owen back to his accurate best and hitting fairways regularly.
The 29-year-old Englishman led the British Open briefly at Royal Lytham and St Annes last year and is sure that experience will lead him to a win soon. He finished third in the two events leading up to last week’s tournament in Paris.
Owen had to settle for third in last month’s Portuguese Open, which was won in a playoff by Carl Pettersson of Sweden after the tournament was reduced to only two rounds, and two weeks ago he finished third behind Sergio Garcia in the Canaries Spanish Open.
Owen matched the 66s of six players who hold the record at the new Belfry layout, including Jose Maria Olazabal who equalled the feat twice over the weekend when he won in 2000.
Olazabal could only manage a 74 on Thursday.
Cabrera, who finished with a share of third place after a 68, played with American guest John Daly and the two big-hitters shot it out off the tee.
Daly shot a 70 as he made his bid to follow up on last year’s BMW International win on the European Tour.
Leading first round scores (Great Britain and Ireland unless stated):
66 - Greg Owen
67 - Ian Woosnam
68 - David Carter, Angel Cabrera (Arg), Anthony Wall
69 - Barry Lane, Jamie Donaldson, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Sandy Lyle, Roger Wessels (Rsa)
70 - Niclas Fasth (Swe), Michael Campbell (Nzl), Daren Lee, Peter O’Malley (Aus), John Daly (USA), Ian Poulter, Charlie Wi (Kor), Ian Garbutt, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind)
71 - Alastair Forsyth, Gary Evans, Rolf Muntz (Ned), Thomas Bjorn (Swe), Russell Claydon, Peter Senior (Aus), Peter Fowler (Aus), David Drysdale, Mark Foster, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Stuart Little, Peter Baker, Padraig Harrington, Eduardo Romero (Arg), Phillip Price, Brett Rumford (Aus), Colin Montgomerie
Selected:
72 - Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer (Ger), Costantino Rocca (Ita), Trevor Immelman (Rsa)
73 - Arjun Atwal (Ind), Jean Van de Velde (Fra)
74 - Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa), Darren Clarke
75 - Justin Rose
76 - Tony Johnstone (Zim)
79 - Lee Westwood.
IRVING (Texas), May 10: Joe Durant and Bryce Molder played on two different courses but shot matching seven-under-par 63s to share the lead after the first round of the $4.8 million Byron Nelson Classic on Thursday.
Esteban Toledo of Mexico, former British Open and U.S. PGA champion Nick Price of Zimbabwe, Frank Lickliter, David Gossett and twice former U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen shared third position on 64.
Steve Flesch, Tom Scherrer, Jim Carter and Sweden’s Per-Ulrik Johansson were all on 65, with world number one Tiger Woods back on 71 in his first start since he won the U.S. Masters in April.
Molder, playing on the par-70 TPC at Las Colinas course, made one bogey and eight birdies in a round which he felt was kick-started by a dropped shot at the par-four 10th.
Durant visited the winner’s circle twice in 2002, lifting the Bob Hope Classic and Genuity Championship titles in a span of three weeks.
But this year he has made the cut in only five of 12 events, earning just over $120,000.
Leading first scores (U.S. unless stated):
63 Bryce Molder, Joe Durant
64 Esteban Toledo (Mexico), Frank Lickliter II, Nick Price (Zimbabwe), David Gossett, Lee Janzen
65 Steve Flesch, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Sweden), Tom Scherrer, Jim Carter
66 Craig Barlow, John Riegger, Jonathan Byrd, Deane Pappas (South Africa), Jay Williamson, Tom Pernice Jr, David Duval, Jeff Maggert, David Frost (South Africa), Michael Connell
Other international players:
67 Shigeki Maruyama (Japan), Greg Chalmers (Australia)
68 Phil Tataurangi (New Zealand), Craig Perks (New Zealand)
69 Sergio Garcia (Spain), Vijay Singh (Fiji), Robert Allenby (Australia), Rod Pampling (Australia), Ernie Els (South Africa), Luke Donald (Britain)
70 Geoff Ogilvy (Australia), Peter Lonard (Australia), Stephen Ames (Canada), KJ Choi (South Korea), Tim Clark (South Africa), Paul Gow (Australia), Fulton Allem (South Africa), Grant Waite (New Zealand)
71 Jose Coceres (Argentina), Jesper Parnevik (Sweden), Hidemichi Tanaka (Japan)
72 Brian Watts (Canada), John Senden (Australia)
73 Rory Sabbatini (South Africa), Frank Nobilo (New Zealand), Craig Parry (Australia)
75 Mike Weir (Canada)
76 Glen Hnatiuk (Canada), Steve Allan (Australia)
WD Carlos Franco (Paraquay) 76.—Reuters/AFP
