Golf Roundup : A Record Start (63) Gives Tewell Lead by One at Memphis

Doug Tewell found the new Tournament Players Club course at Southwind to his liking Thursday, shooting a course-record, eight-under-par 63 to take the first-round lead in the $1-million Federal Express St. Jude golf tournament at Memphis, Tenn.

Tewell, who had eight birdies and no bogeys, shot a six-under-par 30 on the front nine.

On the back nine, the four-time PGA Tour winner added an 18-foot chip shot for birdie at the 11th hole and got up-and-down from a bunker on the par-five 16th for birdie.

Tewell’s effort bettered the previous record of 65 set earlier in the week by John Daly and Russ Cochran.

Jim Gallagher was only one shot off the lead, while Brian Watts, the 1987 NCAA champion from Oklahoma State, and veteran Ed Fiori were two shots back.

Billy Mayfair, Mark Lye and Bob Tway are each three shots off the lead with 66s.

Tewell started his round with back-to-back birdies before sinking putts of 25 feet at the par-5 fifth hole and 15 feet at the par-4 sixth to go four under.

Tewell, whose last tour win came at the 1987 Pensacola Open, finished the front nine with birdie putts of 12 and 10 feet for his 30.

Watts, who does not have a PGA tour card and received a sponsor’s exemption for the St. Jude, was nearly as flawless, making the turn at 31 and adding short birdie putts at the par-3 11th and the par-4 12th to go seven-under.

Watts, who has been playing on the Asian Tour, in Australia and in various PGA satellite tournaments, matched par for the next five holes before falling two shots off the pace at the par-4, 437-yard 18th.

He sliced a seven-iron shot to the right of the green on 18, chipped to within 20 feet andthen two-putted to finish at 65.

Southern Californian Brandie Burton and Georgian Vicki Goetze, two of the three youngest qualifiers this week for match play, each won twice to advance to the semifinals of the 89th U.S. Women’s Amateur golf championship at Pinehurst, N.C.

Burton, winner of last week’s U.S. Women’s Junior championship at nearby Southern Pines, defeated Tonya Gill of Stone Mountain, Ga., 4 and 3. The 17-year-old from Rialto then ousted Chris Miller of Sacramento, 6 and 5.

Goetze, 16, a junior at an Athens, Ga., private school, birdied the final three holes in her opening match to defeat Terri Thompson of Savannah, Ga., one-up, and then defeated Katie Peterson of Plantation, Fla, 5 and 4.

Burton and Goetze also met in the semifinals of the junior championship with Burton winning, one-up.

Carol Semple Thompson and Cathy Mockett both were one-up winners in advancing to the semifinals.

Thompson, 40 and the 1973 U.S. Women’s Amateur winner from Sewickley, Pa., defeated Margaret Platt of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., after beating Deborah Lee of Canada, 6 and 5.

Mockett, of Newport Beach, defeated Sarah LeBrun of Owings Mills, Md., 4 and 3, then went to the 19th hole before beating Kiernan Prechtl, of Ormond Beach, Fla.