Dublin, May 30: Charles Howell III fired an 8-under 64 to finish in front after the first round of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Howell took advantage of benign morning conditions and carded seven birdies and an eagle on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Muirfield Village course. He leads Kenny Perry, last week's Colonial champion, by one stroke, while course record-holder John Huston was two behind. Three-time champion Tiger Woods birdied the last hole to join Vijay Singh of Fiji at 67. As well as Howell played, it was his lone bogey, at the par-four sixth hole, that he rated as the key to his lowest round of the year. He found the water in front of the green with his second shot, but after taking a penalty stroke, got up-and-down from 100 yards to avoid dropping two strokes. He reached the turn at 2-over, before coming home in 30 strokes, including an eagle at the par-five 15th, where he hit a 4-iron to 15 feet. Howell, who finished tied 60th at the Byron Nelson Championship before taking last week off, admitted to being a little nervous on the first tee.


Leading scores (U.S. unless stated): 64 Charles Howell III 65 Kenny Perry 66 John Huston 67 Chad Campbell, Retief Goosen (South Africa), Lee Janzen, Brad Faxon, Vijay Singh (Fiji), Tiger Woods, Adam Scott (Australia) 68 Jeff Maggert, Brendan Pappas (South Africa), Jim Furyk, Woody Austin, Spike McRoy, John Daly 69 Shigeki Maruyama (Japan), Scott Verplank, Bob Tway, Dudley Hart, Mark Calcavecchia, Paul Azinger, Billy Andrade, Keith Fergus, Gary Nicklaus


Other international players: 70 Hidemichi Tanaka (Japan), Ian Leggatt (Canada), Jesper Parnevik (Sweden), Craig Perks (New Zealand), Luke Donald (Great Britain), K.J. Choi (Korea), Padraig Harrington (Ireland), Carl Pettersson (Sweden) 71 Stuart Appleby (Australia), Rory Sabbatini (South Africa), Peter O'Malley (Australia) 72 Lee Westwood (Great Britain), Trevor Immelman (South Africa), Peter Lonard (Australia), Mike Weir (Canada) 73 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain), Ernie Els (South Africa), Stephen Leaney (Australia), Sergio Garcia (Spain) 74 Rod Pampling (Australia), Scott Laycock (Australia), David Smail (New Zealand), Tim Clark (South Africa) 75 Stephen Ames (Trinidad), Craig Parry (Australia) 76 Robert Allenby (Australia) 77 Steve Allan (Australia) 78 Carlos Franco (Paraguay), Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 79 Bernhard Langer (Germany) 88 Alejandro Larrazabal (Spain)


Bureau Report