Duluth, Apr 04: South Africa's Retief Goosen, defending champion of the Bellsouth Classic, shot an opening round 68 in a bid for back-to-back wins at the popular Masters tune-up tournament. Only 17 players managed to get into the red figures in the morning rounds but winds settled down later in the day for lower scoring chances. Chris Dimarco and England's John Morgan took advantage of the improved conditions to share the lead at 5 under par late in the afternoon. Morgan went off the back collecting birdies on the 10th, 11th and 18th holes and an eagle on 13. He fell back, however, going bogey,par, double bogey on his final three holes.
Dimarco had 6 birdies through 15 holes but was forced to give one back with a bogey on the 17th hole but held on for a one stroke lead. Along with Goosen in 2nd place at 4 under par were Bob Burns, Billy Andrade, Aaron Barber, Brad Lardner and Jay Williamson. The 4 million dollar Bellsouth Classic is played over the Sugarloaf course, a par 72, 7,293 yard layout. The course is the 8 longest layout on the PGA tour favoring powerhitters with a fairway profiles very similar to that of Augusta National Golf Club.


Bureau Report