Unites States, June 20: Jim Furyk, winner of last week's U.S. Open, and Joey Sindelar shared second place on 66, with world number one Tiger Woods, South African Retief Goosen and Shigeki Maruyama of Japan a further stroke adrift at the Westchester Country Club. South African duo Deane Pappas and Ernie Els, JL Lewis and Skip Kendall were tied on three-under 68. Baird, whose best performance on the PGA Tour was a second-place finish at the John Deere Classic, began his round in style when he holed out from 77 yards for an eagle at the par-four 10th hole. He bogeyed the 11th after taking three putts but hit back by picking up shots at the 13th, 17th and 18th. On his back nine, Baird sank three birdie putts from within five feet at the first, seventh and ninth, and also rammed in a 20-foot birdie putt at the fourth. Leading scores after the first round of the $5 million Buick Classic at Westchester Country Club (par 71, 6,722 yards) on Thursday (U.S. unless stated): 63 Briny Baird 66 Joey Sindelar, Jim Furyk 67 Shigeki Maruyama (Japan), Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen (South Africa) 68 Deane Pappas (South Africa), Ernie Els (South Africa), JL Lewis, Skip Kendall 69 Jesper Parnevik (Sweden), Steve Elkington (Australia), JJ Henry, Glen Day, Brad Faxon, Shaun Micheel, Cliff Kresge, Matt Kuchar, Steve Flesch, Fred Couples 70 Tim Clark (South Africa), Rod Pampling (Australia), Fredrik Jacobson (Sweden), Sergio Garcia (Spain), Alex Cejka (Germany), Dudley Hart, Donnie Hammond, Jonathan Kaye, Andy Miller, Ben Curtis, Billy Andrade, Brandel Chamblee, Scott Verplank, John Rollins, Vijay Singh (Fiji)

Other international players: 71 Greg Chalmers (Australia), Mathew Goggin (Australia), Rory Sabbatini (South Africa), Per-Ulrik Johansson (Sweden), Carl Pettersson (Sweden), David Frost (South Africa), Luke Donald (Britain), Steven Alker (New Zealand) 72 Peter Lonard (Australia), Kenichi Kuboya (Japan), Gavin Coles (Australia), John E Morgan (Britain) 73 Richard Zokol (Canada), Paul Gow (Australia), John Senden (Australia), Anthony Painter (Australia), Scott Laycock (Australia) 74 Craig Perks (New Zealand), Brenden Pappas (South Africa), Thomas Levet (France), Richard Johnson (Sweden), Carlos Franco (Paraquay) 75 Glen Hnatiuk (Canada), Michael Campbell (New Zealand), Esteban Toledo (Mexico), Richie Coughlan (Ireland), Akio Sadakata (Japan)

Bureau Report