GOLF ROUNDUP : McGann Straightens Out Crooked Stick With 66

Michelle McGann and John Daly share a love of Crooked Stick Golf Club.

Daly went from obscurity to cult figure in one weekend two years ago at Carmel, Ind., when his long drives brought the Pete Dye-designed course to its knees and propelled him to victory in the PGA Championship.

McGann’s driver has been doing a job on the 6,311-yard, par-72 course this week, and she has taken advantage to build a two-shot lead midway through the U.S. Women’s Open.

She shot a six-under-par 66 on Friday to complete 36 holes at eight-under 136. Her 66 was one off the tournament record, shared by three women, and the 136 was two strokes off Patty Sheehan’s midway record in 1990.

McGann has never met Daly, but has heard all the comparisons.

“It’s a totally different golf course we’re playing than what he played, and a totally different game,” McGann said. “I hope that if I win this, forever they’ll be talking about (the comparisons). What can you do? It just happens to be a great golf course for me.”

McGann needed only 23 putts to match her career-low round.

Japan’s Hiromi Kobayashi and first-round co-leader Helen Alfredsson of Sweden trailed McGann, 23, by two strokes at 138. Kobayashi had a 67. Alfredsson settled for 70 after getting birdies on her first three holes.

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Willie Wood, whose promising career was slowed by tragedy, took the lead in the $1-million New England Classic at Sutton, Mass.

Wood followed a first-round 68 with a 65, completing 36 holes in nine-under 133 for a one-stroke lead over Bobby Clampett.

Wood, winner of five major junior golf titles in the late 1970s, lost his wife, Holly, to cancer four years ago this month.

Clampett, the first-round leader, had 18 pars on Friday after a 63 on Thursday.

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Butch Baird, looking for his first Senior PGA Tour victory in four years, shot an eight-under-par 63 to take a two-stroke lead after the first round of the $550,000 First of America Seniors Classic at the Highlands at Grand Rapids, Mich.

Jim Colbert is alone in second place at 65.

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Ireland’s Liam Higgins, battling wind and rain, shot a par 71 and took a three-stroke lead over American amateur Joel Hirsch after two rounds of the British Seniors Open at Lytham St. Annes, England.

Higgins is at one-under 141. Hirsch, a 52-year-old insurance company owner from Chicago, had a 71 for a 144 total.

Gary Player shot a 74 for 147. Arnold Palmer had a 76 for 149.