Haas, Barr share lead
Jay Haas, shooting for his second straight major senior title, reeled off three consecutive birdies on an unusually calm morning and shot a 3-under 67 Thursday to share the first-round lead with Dave Barr in the U.S. Senior Open at Hutchinson, Kansas.
As expected, the heavy rough and roly-poly greens proved tough for the over-50 field, especially in the afternoon. Haas and Barr drew early tee times and were finished long before any of their closest pursuers and before winds kicked up and tightened the short-but-narrow Prairie Dunes course.
One stroke behind the leaders at 68 with only a handful of players left on the course were D.A. Weibring and three international golfers — Massy Kuramoto of Japan, Graham Marsh of Australia and Mark James of England.
Defending champion Allen Doyle had trouble with the 5-inch rough on a couple of holes and was one stroke further back at 1-under 69 along with Bruce Lietzke, Lonnie Nielsen and Bruce Summerhays.
Mickelson one off lead
Phil Mickelson shot 4-under 67 in the first round of the Western Open, trying to rebound from his U.S. Open collapse. Tiger Woods wasn’t as fortunate.
While Mickelson was one shot out of the lead, Woods struggled to a 1-over 72 in his first tournament since missing the cut at the U.S. Open last month.
Joe Ogilvie, Lucas Glover, Daniel Chopra and David McKenzie were tied for first after shooting 66 on the 7,326-yard course at Cog Hill. Davis Love III and Vijay Singh joined Mickelson one back.
Charles Warren, Stephen Leaney and Robert Allenby were also at 4 under.
Mickelson, starting from the 10th tee, bogeyed his first two holes but ended his round in spectacular fashion with an eagle on Number 9.
Wie, Sorenstam win
Michelle Wie overcame a shaky start to win her first match in the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship, and Annika Sorenstam followed her U.S. Women’s Open victory with another solid round.
Wie rallied to beat 63rd-seeded Candy Hannemann 5 and 3, and the top-seeded Sorenstam opened with a 3-and-2 victory over No. 64 Virada Nirapathpongporn on the waterlogged Hamilton Farm course.
With about 200 people following Wie on the hazy, humid day, the 16-year-old star lost the first two holes.
She hit her opening drive under a tree in the right rough en route to a bogey, then lost the par-5 second when Hannemann made a 3-footer for birdie.
After halving the par-4 third, the second-seeded Wie won the next six holes.
“Nancy Lopez will play an LPGA Tour event for the first time in more than a year next week at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.
Lopez, 49, a winner of 48 LPGA tournaments, has played only a handful of tour events since the 2002 season.