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POTOMAC (Maryland), May 31: Franklin Langham dominated the opening round of the Kemper Open Thursday, firing an eight-under-par 63 to stake out a two-shot lead over Bob Estes at the TPC at Avenel.
Three shots back of Langham is a group of five players, led by world number 10 Chris DiMarco.
Also at five-under on 66 are 1998 British Open runner-up Brian Watts, Jay Williamson, Willie Wood and Brian Gay.
Australia’s Greg Norman, twice a winner of the Kemper, is at four-under, along with nine other players.
In the first round, Estes took 29 putts to get around the 7,005-yard, par-71 layout, eight more than Watts, who had only 21, and three more than Langham, who had 26.
Leading first round scores (US unless stated):
63 — Franklin Langham.
65 — Bob Estes.
66 — Chris DiMarco, Brian Watts (Canada), Jay Williamson, Willie Wood, Brian Gay.
67 — Duffy Waldorf, Greg Norman (Australia), Hidemichi Tanaka (Japan), Bryce Molder, Craig Barlow, Phil Tataurangi (New Zealand), Joe Durant, Andrew Magee, John Senden (Australia).
68 — Kent Jones, Rich Beem, Bob Burns, Jerry Smith, Shaun Micheel, Deane Pappas (South Africa), Bob May, J.P. Hayes, David Hutsell, Tom Byrum, Joey Sindelar, Tim Clark (South Africa), Luke Donald (England).
Other international players:
69 — Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), Brenden Pappas (South Africa), Glen Hnatiuk (Canada).
70 — Gabriel Hjertstedt (Sweden), Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain), Carlos Franco (Paraguay), Steve Elkington (Australia).
71 — Stuart Appleby (Australia), Trevor Dodds (Namibia), Craig Parry (Australia), Mathew Goggin (Australia), Paul Gow (Australia), Greg Chalmers (Australia), Scott Laycock (Australia).
WOBURN (England): Dutchman Robert-Jan Derksen and Spain’s Santiago Luna benefited from a strong mental approach to set the first-round pace with matching scores of five-under-par 67 in the British Masters Thursday.
The pair finished one stroke ahead of defending champion Thomas Levet of France, Britain’s Phillip Price, Ian Poulter and Raymond Russell and Denmark’s Soren Hansen.
Derksen and Luna both relied on successful mind games during a difficult morning of sunshine and squalls, the Dutchman reminding himself not to try too hard and the Spaniard making sure he did not fight his inner thoughts.
Luna abandoned his faithful old one-iron some weeks ago, and his new one responded with his shot of the day, an approach to just five feet at the long 17th which earned him an eagle.
Derksen languishes 169th after missing eight cuts in 13 starts this season and the Dutchman has had to rethink his whole philosophy on how he handles being back on the main tour.
Leading first round scores (British unless stated, a denotes amateur):
67 — Robert-Jan Derksen (Netherlands), Santiago Luna (Spain).
68 — Phillip Price, Thomas Levet (France), Soren Hansen (Denmark), Raymond Russell, Ian Poulter.
69 — Chris Gane, Robert Karlsson (Sweden), Marc Farry (France), Gary Evans, Jean Hugo (South Africa), Sven Struver (Germany), John Bickerton, a-Barry Hume, Des Smyth (Ireland), Barry Lane, Robert Coles, Philip Golding, Olle Karlsson (Sweden), Peter Hedblom (Sweden).
70 — Richard Bland, Thomas Bjorn (Denmark), Paul Eales, Mark Foster, Gordon Brand Jnr, Jorge Berendt (Argentina), Simon Dyson, Roger Wessels (South Africa), Fredrik Andersson (Sweden), Charlie Wi (South Korea), Gregory Havret (France), Brian Davis, Jamie Donaldson, Colin Montgomerie, Arjun Atwal (India), Paul Lawrie, Justin Rose, Rolf Muntz (Netherlands), Steve Webster.—Reuters
