GOLF ROUNDUP : Brown Has Two-Stroke LPGA Lead

Nancy Brown shot a six-under-par 66 to take a two-stroke lead after the first round of a $550,000 LPGA tournament Friday at Hanno, Japan, the final tournament of the LPGA season.

Brown started by chipping to within three feet for a birdie on the first hole of the 6,376-yard, par-72 Musashigaoka Golf Course, outside Tokyo. She birdied the seventh hole with a 20-foot putt and later birdied the 11th hole with a 28-foot putt.

“I missed only three greens all day,” Brown said. “I hit my driver very long and that helps me on this golf course. I only hit two bad drives and both times I had long irons into the greens. I nearly reached three of the par-fives in two today and that helps your score anytime you get that many chances at birdies.”

Vicki Fergon birdied the final hole and shared second place with Caroline Keggi and Rosie Jones at 68.

Fred Couples won his second match in two days at the $1.15-million Four Tours World Championship of Golf at Inagi, Japan, beating Saburo Fujiki of Japan, 66-69.

Couples’ victory was one of four scored by members of the U.S. PGA Tour team against Japan’s PGA golfers, with the Americans winning, 10-2.

The other two matches ended in ties, and left the United States tied for the lead with Australia-New Zealand, each with 14 points. Europe was third with 12 points and Japan fourth with eight.

In other U.S.-Japan matches, Tim Simpson beat Nobuo Serizawa, 69-71, after Serizawa double-bogeyed the last hole; Mark Calcavecchia beat Noboru Sugai, 68-73; Wayne Levi beat Masahiro Kuramoto, 69-74; Payne Stewart tied Hideki Kase at 68, and Jodie Mudd tied Joe Ozaki at 71.

Carlos Pelaez of Mexico shot an eight-under-par 64 to take a one-stroke lead over Steve Elkington of Australia after two rounds of a $600,000 tournament at Atizapan de Zaragoza, Mexico.