GOLF ROUNDUP : Hoch Leads by Three After 63 in Michigan

Scott Hoch shot a nine-under-par 63 in the first round to tie the Buick Open record and take a three-stroke lead over Brad Faxon and Marco Dawson on Thursday.

Hoch was 10 under and in position to break the record, shared by five others, before a bogey on the 18th hole. The course record at the 7,014-yard Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club at Grand Blanc, Mich., is 62 by Jim Colbert in a 1979 pro-am event.

Hoch opened with pars on the first four holes before playing the next 10 holes in nine under. He birdied Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8 to turn at four under. He then birdied the 11th and 12th, eagled No. 13 and birdied the 14th to go nine under. Another birdie at the par-three 17th put him 10 under.

He left his second shot short of the green at the 435-yard 18th. His chip shot stopped about 12 feet from the pin and his putt grazed the edge of the hole but stayed out.

Players at 67 included defending Buick Open champion Chip Beck, Greg Norman, Greg Twiggs, Tommy Moore and Fulton Allem.

Hoch, best remembered for the two-foot putt he missed during the playoff at the 1989 Masters, is tied for 27th on the PGA Tour money list with $337,488. He could add $180,000 to that by winning the $1-million tournament.

Hoch is winless since his victory in the 1989 Las Vegas Invitational, three weeks after his misfortune helped give Nick Faldo the first of his two Masters.

U.S. Public Links champion David Berganio Jr. of Sylmar shot a one-under-par 70 and extended his lead to nine shots after three rounds of the 25th Pacific Coast Amateur Championship at Flagstaff, Ariz.

Berganio had five birdies, four bogeys and nine pars over the 6,958-yard, par-71 Forest Highlands course. He is at nine-under-par 204. Berganio’s closest pursuers are Todd Fischer of Pleasanton, Calif., who equaled the day’s best round with a three-under-par 68, and Jaxon Brigman of Abilene, Tex., who had an even-par 71.

Emilee Klein of Studio City reached the semifinals of the 1991 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Wichita, Kan.

Klein, who won medalist honors, defeated Victoria Boysen, of Ft. Worth, 4 and 3, in the third round. She then beat Jennifer Biehn, of Scottsdale, Ariz., 2 up.

Her opponent will be Alicia Allison of Santa Ana, who defeated Vicky Strada of Cosmopolis, Wash., 5 and 4, in the third round and Kristel Mourgue-D’Algue, of France, 4 and 3, in the quarterfinals.