Hurst, Lincicome earn share of Evian lead
Pat Hurst and Brittany Lincicome of the United States and Eun-hee Ji of South Korea each shot a 6-under 66 Thursday to share the lead after the first round of the LPGA Tour's Evian Masters in Evian-Les-Bains, France.
Michelle Wie, the 17-year-old star from Hawaii, shot a 73 and has not broken par since finishing tied for second at this event last year.
On a day of low scoring, the leaders were just 1 shot ahead of Christina Kim of the United States, and Kyeong Bae and Jin Joo Hong of South Korea.
Hurst, who is in her 13th season on the tour, started well with a birdie at the first and finished with an eagle on the 18th.
"I hit a 4-iron to 10 feet, so it was a good ending," she said. "The putting is what is tough, but the more years I come here, the easier it is to read the greens."
The 21-year-old Ji was undaunted by her Evian Masters debut, holing out with her second shot at the third hole for an eagle. She also birdied the fourth, seventh and ninth holes.
"I hit a 9-iron from 130 yards," Ji said. "I played good all day."
The 21-year-old Lincicome, who won the Ginn Open in April, eagled the ninth and almost did the same at the 18th.
Karrie Webb, the defending champion from Australia, stayed in contention with a 70.
Canadian Open: Hunter Mahan had to rely on the crowd to tell him where his approach shot ended up on the ninth green in the PGA Tour's Canadian Open at Markham, Ontario. The load roar made it easy to figure out that he holed the 81-yard shot for his third eagle of the round -- and second on a par-4 hole.
"I was like, 'Wow! That's crazy,'æ" Mahan said. "That doesn't happen."
Playing in perfect scoring conditions on Angus Glen's North Course, Mahan also holed out from 189 yards on No. 18 -- the ninth hole of his morning round -- and made a more routine eagle with a 10-foot putt on the par-5 11th. He finished with a 9-under 62 to match the tournament record and take a 2-stroke lead.
Senior British Open: Nick Faldo recaptured enough of his famous competitive edge to shoot a 3-under 68 for a share of the lead in his Champions Tour debut.
The six-time major champion made 6 birdies -- including a 3-foot putt at the last -- in the first round of the Senior British Open at Muirfield in Gullane, Scotland, where he won two of his three Opens, in 1987 and '92.
Joining Faldo at 3 under were 65-year-old Dave Stockton, a regular on the Champions Tour, Nick Job and Gordon J. Brand.