GOLF ROUNDUP : Rookie Shoots 66 to Take Lead in Byron Nelson

Rookie Steve Lamontagne shot a four-under-par 66 under difficult conditions and took a one-stroke lead Friday in the day-late start of the $1-million Byron Nelson tournament at Irving, Tex.

Battling strong winds and chilly weather, Lamontagne managed to avoid the deep, wet Bermuda rough that tormented his fellow pros.

“The rough is really deep and thick. You don’t want to be in there,” he said.

Lamontagne missed only one fairway--the 15th on the once-flooded and still-wet TPC at Las Colinas--and made his lone bogey there.

“It was a very tough golf course,” he said. “This definitely was as good a round as the 65 (in the Hawaiian Open, his low score on the PGA Tour). That was seven under par and this is four, but it’s definitely as good a round.”

The course remained saturated from eight inches of rain earlier in the week that reduced the tournament to a three-day, 54-hole format.

Lee Trevino, trying for his fourth Senior Tour victory in seven events, birdied the final hole to finish with a five-under-par 67 after the first round of the $450,000 tournament at the Desert Inn Country Club in Las Vegas.

Trevino overcame a double bogey on the front nine with a 32 on the back side to gain a three-way tie with defending champion Charles Coody and Bob Charles. Despite an injured knee that left him unable to bend over to read putts, Trevino birdied all four par-3s and had seven birdies in all.

Patti Rizzo shot a five-under-par 67 to take a two-stroke lead over first-round finishers at a rain-plagued LPGA tournament in Nashville, Tenn.

Rizzo made the turn at two-under 34, then took three more strokes off par on the back nine of the 6,242-yard, par-72 Hermitage Golf Course.

She leads Kris Tschetter, Jane Geddes and Sandra Palmer. Cindy Rarick also was at three-under when play was suspended due to darkness.