GOLF ROUNDUP : Tway in 5-Way Tie With a 67

Bob Tway, struggling through the worst slump of his career, shot a four-under-par 67 Thursday to give him a place in a five-way tie for the first-round lead of the $1-million Buick Classic at Harrison, N.Y.

Tway shared the top spot with Ted Schulz, Greg Kraft, South African David Frost and Australian Steve Elkington, winner of the Tournament of Champions early this season.

Jeff Sluman, runner-up in the U.S. Open last week at Pebble Beach, continued his strong play with a 68 and was tied with Chip Beck, Emlyn Aubrey, Buddy Gardner and Australian Craig Parry.

Tom Kite, who won the Open for his first major victory, produced a sigh of relief after a 70.

“I’m very relieved to have that round behind me, and I’m very relieved it was a good one,” Kite said, explaining he had feared a letdown in the wake of his emotional Open victory.

“A couple of the guys came up to me and said, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ And I’ve kind of wondered, too,” Kite said. “But I had committed for the tournament. I’ve never withdrawn after committing and it’s not a habit I want to get into.

“But I’ll tell you, I sure am glad to have that round behind me.”

So was Tway.

“I haven’t been doing anything very good. I wasn’t driving it very good. My irons were mediocre and my putting suspect,” said Tway, who has missed the cut in half his 12 starts this season and ranks 176th on the money list with $21,976.

That compares with four victories, including the birdie from a bunker that beat Greg Norman in the PGA, in 1986.

One of those victories in 1986 came on this hilly Westchester Country Club course in the northern suburbs of New York.

A handful of pickets were at the tournament to protest what they said were the course’s discrimination against female golfers.

Nancy Lopez, the tournament’s only three-time winner, made six birdies and took a one-stroke lead over Michelle McGann in the first round of the $400,000 Rochester International at Pittsford, N.Y.

Lopez, who tied for second in last week’s Lady Keystone Open, started out both nines with consecutive birdies on the way to a six-under-par 66 at the Locust Hill Country Club.

All but one of Lopez’s birdie putts were less than seven feet. She said missing putts like those had cost her during her past four tournaments, with two seconds, a fifth and an eighth.

McGann’s highlight was an eagle on the 459-yard, par-five 17th hole. Danielle Ammaccapane, winner of the Lady Keystone and the tour’s leading money winner, finished with three birdies after the turn and shot 69.