Golf: Unlikely foursome dominates Lumber Classic

NEW YORK: The unlikely golfing foursome of South Korean Charlie Wi and Americans Mark O'Meara, Shaun Micheel and Jason Gore topped the first round leaderboard at the PGA Tour's 84 Lumber Classic yesterday.

The quartet, who between them can count just one top-10 finish on the PGA Tour this season, carded seven-under 65s in the first round at the Mystic Rock Golf Course in Farmington, Pennsylvania.

In contrast, world No 2 and defending champion Vijay Singh and No 3 Phil Mickelson, who have each won four events this year, failed to break par. Singh shot 72 and Mickelson 73.

New Zealand's only entrant, Michael Long, was also in danger of missing the top-70 cut after posting a two-over 74 to be tied for 100th.

Micheel, who has struggled since lifting his only career title at the 2003 PGA Championship, had looked to take charge of the leaderboard, getting to 10-under with the help of two eagles.

But the American suffered a late collapse with bogeys on his final three holes to fall back and join the pack.

"Other than the last three holes, it was a nice day," said Micheel, whose only top-10 this season was a seventh at the Western Open.

"I guess I'm a golfer so I've got to have something to complain about, and certainly I'm going to go to bed thinking about the last three bogeys the last three holes."

It was a remarkable display of concentration by Micheel, who was distracted after playing partner David Toms was taken to hospital midway through their round with chest pains and a rapid heartbeat.

"He kind of said something, and I turned around, and he was kind of clutching his chest and he said he couldn't breathe," said Micheel.

"Someone thought maybe he had gotten stung by a bee, but certainly if you're holding your chest and can't breathe, I don't think it's a bee sting unless you're allergic, and he probably would have known that prior to today.

"It was a scary moment. It shook me up.

"Again, it didn't really show, I think, in the scores. Ultimately you've got to go on.

"But certainly my thoughts were with him for the next five or six holes."

Wi, who is without a top-20 finish in 19 tournaments this season and has never finished higher than 22nd in a US PGA Tour event, enjoyed his best round of the year, mixing eight birdies with just one bogey.

"It's been a rough year so far," Wi said. "The times when I hit the ball solid I wasn't making putts, but today I was able to putt, turning good shots into birdies. I started off the year pretty well, making all the cuts, but I think I was trying a little too hard on the weekends, where I was shooting maybe 74 or 75 and I would really shoot myself in the foot."

O'Meara, who has not won on the PGA Tour since claiming the British Open and US Masters titles in 1998, got his day off to a stuttering start with a bogey at the first, but was flawless the rest of the way.

Lurking one shot back at six-under 66 is Sweden's Carl Petterson, with Australia's Stuart Appleby and Americans Ben Crane, Zach Johnson and Bob Burns all on five-under 67.

- REUTERS