Golf: Hovering Woods menaces at Memorial

Scott Verplank and Chris Smith grabbed the first-round lead in the $US4.1 million ($9.95 million) Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, yesterday, but Tiger Woods stole their thunder with another nine holes of spectacular play.

Woods, the world's top-ranked player and two-time Memorial champion, found the water twice on the front nine at Muirfield Village Golf Club and stumbled to an outgoing 38.

But he recovered on the back nine with a pair of eagles to come home in 30, for a four-under 68 that put him in position for his fifth win in six tournaments.

Woods and a handful of others, including New Zealander Grant Waite, is two strokes off the pace set by Verplank and Smith, who each made seven birdies and one bogey to shoot six-under rounds of 66.

Smith, an Ohio State graduate who played numerous practice rounds at Muirfield, is making his Memorial debut.

Jeff Sluman did not make a bogey in a round of 67 and was joined by Stuart Appleby in a tie for third place.

Eleven players, including 1993 Memorial winner Paul Azinger, Spain's Sergio Garcia and Sweden's Jesper Parnevik, were one back on 68.

Ernie Els, Jim Furyk and Mark Calcavecchia were among seven players at 69, as 59 in the 105-man field shot par or better, despite lightning-fast greens and swirling winds.

New Zealand's second representative in the field, Frank Nobilo, had a one-over 73.

* Swede Robert Karlsson played his way back into Ryder Cup reckoning after holding off playing partner Adam Scott to capture the first-round lead in the British Masters.

With Scott managing to birdie the final three holes, Karlsson twice saved par under pressure late on to card a six-under 66, a stroke better than Scott at the Woburn course.

Karlsson is determined to make this year's Ryder Cup team after falling agonisingly one place short of the automatic top 10 in 1999 and not getting a wild-card.

His Spanish Open success six weeks ago, to go with an earlier second in Qatar, hauled him into an automatic spot.

Karlsson and Scott, the 20-year-old Australian in his first year as a professional, are looking for their second wins of the season.

Scott's big finish kept him a stroke ahead of a large group on 68, which included former European No 1 Colin Montgomerie.

Greg Turner heads the New Zealand challenge at two-under.

Michael Campbell had no excuses for his disappointing two-over 74, which did not contain a single birdie.

* Canadian A. J. Eathorne sank a 45ft putt at the first hole and never looked back on her way to a share of the first-round lead at the women's US Open at the Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in North Carolina.

Eathorne shared the lead with American Cindy Figg-Currier at three-under 67.

They are one stroke ahead of Americans Juli Inkster and Jill McGill, and South Korean Mi Hyun-kim.

Championship favourite Annika Sorenstam and last year's champion, Karrie Webb, started neatly with rounds of 70.

However, the same cannot be said of 1987 champion Laura Davies, who dropped six shots on the final four holes for a 75.

Thirteen-year-old Morgan Pressel, the youngest-ever qualifier, did not embarrass herself with a respectable 77.

On a course left littered by double bogeys and worse, Pressel had nothing worse than a bogey which left her equal 107th in the 150-woman field.

"I was kind of nervous starting. You'd be surprised how far a 3ft putt looks in the Open, but I calmed down after a while," said Pressel, who is taking the final week off her school term to play in the women's biggest golf event.

Trailed by one of the day's largest galleries, Pressel seemed to enjoy every minute in the spotlight on a day she punctuated with an 8ft birdie at the final hole.

"I'm happy with what I had, but I could have shot a lot better," she said.

"My best moment was probably the last hole. Finishing like that was good. I'm having fun."

The Florida teenager's sense of humour has endeared her to everyone this week.

Told that top Korean Pak Se-ri had been mentally exhausted because of the demands of the course, Pressel, munching on an ice cream, quipped: "Maybe that's why she played well. You do have to think, but I don't know if I'd be exhausted from thinking."

New Zealand pair Lynette Brooky and Marnie McGuire shot rounds of 72 and 76 respectively.

- AGENCIES