GOLF ROUNDUP : Couples Takes Lead at Orlando

Fred Couples, averaging $74,916 per start and 68.5 strokes per round this season, continued his torrid pace with a bogey-free 67 Thursday for the lead after 18 holes of the Nestle Invitational at Orlando, Fla.

His five-under-par effort continued a nine-month streak during which Couples has been the most successful player in the world.

He has won four times during that time and has finished sixth or better 18 times in 22 starts.

In the last three weeks, he won the Los Angeles Open, was second in the Doral Open and lost a playoff to Corey Pavin in the Honda Classic.

Couples says the pressure of near-constant competition with tournament titles on the line is beginning to take a toll.

“I was mentally exhausted last week,” he said, then quickly added: “But that had nothing to do with the way I played Sunday. You get tired when it’s over, not when you’re playing.”

He took a break--”slept all day Tuesday,” he said--skipped a practice round for this event and didn’t arrive at the tournament site until Wednesday.

Couples, competing in his sixth consecutive event, had to wait out a 41-minute rain delay and fought winds gusting to 30 m.p.h.

He held a one-stroke lead over Mark Brooks, John Huston, Larry Nelson, Fuzzy Zoeller and Gary McCord. They were trailed by Blaine McCallister and Australian Mike Harwood, who had 69s.

Nancy Scranton, Muffin Spencer-Devlin and Meg Mallon are tied for the lead at four-under-par 69 after the first round of the $550,000 Standard Register Ping tournament at the par-73, 6,514-yard Moon Valley Country Club in Phoenix.

Anne-Marie Palli, Elaine Crosby and Kate Rogerson are tied at three-under 70.

Rookie Kiernan Prechtl had a share of the lead but double-bogeyed the par-four 16th hole and finished at 72.