MEMPHIS (Tennessee), June 27: PGA Tour veteran Jay Haas and rookie Darron Stiles shot seven-under-par 64s on Thursday for a share of the first-round lead in the rain-affected St Jude Classic.
After several delays for rain and lightning, play was finally suspended at 8.30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT) with 56 of the 152-player field yet to complete their opening round.
They will return to the course on Friday morning to finish off the first round.
Robert Damron is second in the clubhouse after shooting a six-under 65 while David Peoples is on the same mark but has two holes remaining.
David Gossett, Stan Utley and Dennis Paulson are another stroke behind in a tie for fourth.
Former United States Ryder Cup regular Paul Azinger is in a group of seven players on four-under 67 along with Jim Gallagher Jr, Bob Estes, John Huston, Kirk Triplett, South Africa’s Brenden Pappas and Australia’s Aaron Baddeley.
David Toms, the world number seven and the only player in the world’s top-10 competing in this event, is four-under through 16 holes.
Defending champion Len Mattiace stands on five-under with one hole remaining.
Leading first round (US unless stated):
64 — Jay Haas, Darron Stiles.
65 — Robert Damron.
66 — David Gossett, Stan Utley.
67 — Jim Gallagher Jr, Bob Estes, John Huston, Paul Azinger, Kirk Triplett.
68 — Tim Herron, Andrew Magee, David Edwards, Pat Bates, Chris DiMarco, Garrett Willis, Lee Janzen, Cameron Beckman, Duffy Waldorf, Stephen Ames (Trinidad), Mike Grob, Chris Anderson, Hanke Kuehne.
69 — Per-Ulrik Johansson (Sweden), Jose Coceres (Argentina), James McLean (Australia), Steven Alker (New Zealand).
70 — Robert Allenby (Australia), Deane Pappas (South Africa).
ROSE FALTERS
ST QUENTIN (France): A relaxed chat with his friend Ian Poulter helped conspire to cost Justin Rose the chance of closing to within a shot of the French Open first round lead on Thursday.
The 22-year-old Briton was engrossed in the conversation with his playing partner Poulter before accidentally trampling on his ball which earned him a one-stroke penalty on the 17th hole, his eighth.
Rose carded a 68 to trail French amateur Eric Chaudouet, Britain’s Philip Golding and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts who all had six-under-par 66s.
Rose had got off to an indifferent start but three birdies around his slip-up and three more coming home, left him well in contention and two off the early pace.
Leading first round scores (Britain unless stated, a-denotes amateur):
66 — a-Eric Chaudouet (France), Nicolas Colsaerts (Belgium), Philip Golding.
67 — Gary Birch Jr, Bradley Dredge, Jose Manuel Lara (Spain), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain).
68 — Robert-Jan Derksen (Netherlands), Soren Hansen (Denmark), Gary Murphy (Ireland), Justin Rose, Alastair Forsyth, Stephen Gallacher, Brian Davis, Marc Farry (France).
69 — John Bickerton, Emanuele Canonica (Italy), Francois Delamontagne (France), Peter Lawrie (Ireland), Jonathan Lomas, Andrew Marshall, Andrew Oldcorn, Iain Pyman, Jarrod Moseley (Australia).
WASHED OUT
SEOUL: South Korean Choi Kyung-ju’s bid for success in the SK Telecom Open suffered a setback on Friday when the second round was cancelled because of heavy rain.
Choi shot an eight-under-par 64 to take a two-stroke lead after the first round but was unable to start his second round due to the poor weather.—Reuters/AFP