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Sutherland's 65 leads by 1; Woods at 72

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 8, 2000

OAKVILLE, Ontario -- Kevin Sutherland, whose wife gave birth to their first child 10 days ago, committed to play the Canadian Open at the last minute and responded with his best opening round of the year, 7-under 65 Thursday at Glen Abbey Golf Club to take a one-stroke lead over Cameron Beckman.

Tiger Woods, meanwhile, was in unfamiliar territory. A two-putt birdie on the 18th gave him 72 and barely kept alive his streak of 36 rounds at par or better.

"Golf is a fickle game," Woods said. "There are times you struggle and still post a good score. Other times, you play beautifully and don't shoot anything. Today was a mixture of both."

Sergio Garcia, still charged by his 1-up victory over Woods in their exhibition last week, was tied with Sutherland at 7 under until bogeys down the stretch dropped him to 67.

"To be able to beat Tiger probably is the best thing that has happened to me," said Garcia, playing his final tournament in North America this year.

He was joined by Brian Watts, J.L. Lewis and Jesper Parnevik, who made birdies on four of the last five holes.

Sutherland, 36, who has never won on the PGA Tour, has played only three times in two months and was home in California the past two weeks for the birth of his son, Keaton.

"If my wife didn't say, "Why don't you go play?' I probably wouldn't have come," he said. "I may be a little rusty, but I felt I was ready to play. I just stayed within myself, hitting good shots and making good putts, and didn't get too far ahead of myself."

Sutherland played his first nine holes 6 under, including a 40-foot birdie putt on No. 11 and a 20-foot eagle putt on the 18th. Sutherland ran off six pars, then hit a 4-iron to 6 feet for his only birdie on the front nine.

This is the final tournament of the summer for Woods, who shattered records at the U.S. Open, completed the Grand Slam at the British Open and became the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three straight majors with his playoff victory Aug. 20 at the PGA Championship.

The last time Woods played in the Canadian Open, he missed the cut in 1997 at Royal Montreal. It's the only time he missed a cut in his PGA Tour career.

Woods was 3 under through eight holes, then three-putted from 20 feet on No. 9.

He pulled his drive into the trees on No. 11 and tried to play out of the rough and over the trees to the green guarded by water. But he hit it heavy and went into the pond, leading to his first double bogey since the 12th hole of the third round in the PGA Championship.

"The back nine was not pretty," he said. "As bad as I felt, to shoot even par is pretty good."

EUROPEAN MASTERS: Eduardo Romero shot 7-under 64 for the first-round lead in European PGA play at Crans-Sur-Sierre, Switzerland. Romero, 46, who won the event in 1994, was a stroke ahead of Michael Campbell, who was a shot ahead of Hennie Otto. Romero birdied the opening hole and eagled the par-4 6th with a 110-yard pitching wedge.

TOPY CUP: Kristin Dufour shot 1-under 71 for a three-stroke victory in the annual U.S.-Japan college championship. Dufour of the University of Texas finished at 1-over 217, three shots ahead of Jessica Reese, also of Texas, who had a final-round 73. In the team event, Dufour and Reese led Texas to a victory, finishing at 27-over 891, 20 strokes ahead of Tulsa. In the men's competition, Riki Ikeda of Nihon University shot 69 for 6-under 210, one stroke ahead of Conrad Roberts of Texas and Toyokazu Fukushima of Tohoku University. Tohoku won the team event with a three-round total of 1-over 865, followed by Nippon Sports Science University's 869 and Texas' 871.

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