Aussies enjoy Texas

Adam Scott returned to Australia after the Masters. It was a short visit.

“I felt like I was still playing good and I shouldn’t waste that at home,” Scott said.

So instead of staying home for a second week, Scott was a deadline entrant into the EDS Byron Nelson Championship at Irving, Texas, where Friday he shot a second-round 67 to take the lead at 5-under-par 135.

That was good for a one-stroke lead over fellow Aussies Mark Hensby (67) and Mathew Goggin (69), and Scott McCarron (66), who missed all of last season recovering from right elbow surgery.

Scott began his round with four straight birdies.

Though he managed only one more to go with two bogeys, that was enough to give the only one of the world’s top 10 players at the Nelson sole possession of the lead.

“It would have been nice to get a couple more after my start,” said Scott, 10th in the latest rankings. “But I’m pretty happy.”

LPGA

Annika Sorenstam shot a 4-under 67 on the Soffer course, drawing her within one shot of Young Kim at the midway point of the inaugural Stanford International Pro-Am, being contested at Turnberry Isle in Aventura, Fla.

Kim also shot a 67, matching her first-round score.

They’ll enter the third round with a solid cushion over Paula Creamer (71) and Angela Stanford (70), both of whom were 2 under.

Only seven players were under par through two rounds, with Meena Lee (71), Momeko Ueda (72) and Kyeong Bae (71) at 1 under to round out that elite group. Wendy Ward of Edwall, Wash., shot a 73 for a 147 and made the cut.

Champions Tour

Tom Watson and Andy North teamed to birdie the first seven holes en route to a better-ball 13-under 59 for a three-shot lead after the first round of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf tournament at The Club at Savannah Harbor in Savannah, Ga.

“For a while there, we said, ‘Let’s birdie them all,’ ” North said.

“That’s sort of what you have to do. You make three pars in an event like this and eight teams go past you.”

During the opening run of birdies, Watson sank a 25-foot putt at No. 3 and North chipped in at the sixth.