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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Four lead Tradition with 67s


Ben Curtis shoots from the trap en route to a first-place tie in the Buick Open's first round. 
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press

Dana Quigley could hardly believe he made a 45 1/2 -foot eagle putt to close out the first round of the Tradition in Aloha, Ore., on Thursday.

“Seemed like 25,” he said, joking. “I must be putting well.”

The putt on No. 18 gave Quigley a 5-under-par 67 and a share of the lead at the Tradition, the final major of the year on the Champions Tour.

Loren Roberts, John Harris and D.A. Weibring also were at 5 under at the Reserve Vineyards & Golf Club in the suburbs west of Portland, where temperatures reached 90.

“I was amazed at how soft it was,” Weibring said of the 7,150-yard South Course. “I know they haven’t had a lot of rain, so they put some water on it.”

R.W. Eaks, Walter Hall, Mark McCumber, Allen Doyle and Mark Johnson were in a group a shot back at 4-under 68.

Quigley joined the 50-and-older tour in 1997. He has won 10 times and has been a runner-up in 15 other tournaments. He is a two-time winner this year – at the MasterCard Championship and the Bayer Advantage Classic.

Quigley was in a twosome with Weibring, a runner-up at the U.S. Senior Open and winner at Bruno’s Memorial Classic.

“When you see a guy playing well, it tends to get you stirred up to play well,” Quigley said. “We didn’t spend much of the day looking for balls or seeing clubs being slammed to the ground.”

Defending champion Craig Stadler was even after a first-round 72. Oregon native Peter Jacobsen, whose production company is running the tournament, shot a 71.

PGA

Ben Curtis and J.L. Lewis shot 6-under 64s to share the first-round lead at the Buick Championship in Cromwell, Conn.

Curtis, the 2003 British Open winner, birdied his 17th hole, and Lewis birdied his 18th to emerge from a group of players bunched at 5 under.

Kevin Sutherland, Justin Rose, Franklin Langham, Vaughn Taylor, coming off a win last week at the Reno-Tahoe Open, and NCAA individual runner-up Michael Putnam, who is making his PGA Tour debut, are a stroke back.

LPGA

Defending champion Catriona Matthew was one of five players tied for the lead – in the biggest first-round logjam this year on the LPGA Tour – at the Wendy’s Championship for Children in Dublin, Ohio.

Matthew shot a shot 6-under 66, a score matched by Paula Marti, Soo-Yun Kang, Heather Daly-Donofrio and Marisa Baena.

Another nine players were a shot back as the 144-player field took advantage of soft greens and a short course to post 69 subpar scores.

The five leaders make up an international team all by themselves, representing Scotland (Matthew), Spain (Marti), South Korea (Kang), the United States (Daly-Donofrio) and Colombia (Baena).

Wendy Ward of Edwall, Wash., opened with a 69.

U.S. Amateur

Kent State senior Ryan Yip and fellow Canadians Mark Leon and J.C. Deacon each won two matches at historic Merion Golf Club to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur Championship in Ardmore, Pa.

Yip beat Brett Stegmaier 2-up in the second round and edged U.S. Walker Cup player Brian Harman 1-up in the third round on Merion’s East Course.