GOLF ROUNDUP : Little, Hoping to Make This Cut, Shoots a 67

Sally Little, a 15-time champion on the LPGA tour but winless since 1988, and Nancy Ramsbottom, looking for her first title, each shot a four-under-par 67 Thursday and shared the first-round lead in the $650,000 JAL Big Apple Classic at New Rochelle, N.Y.

JoAnne Carner, one of the 13 members of the LPGA Hall of Fame, shared third place with Trish Johnson of England, who spent the last four weeks competing in Europe. They each shot a 68 on the 6,095-yard Wykagyl Country Club course.

Little, a 44-year-old native of South Africa who became an American citizen in 1982, has missed seven cuts in 14 tournaments this year.

She had four birdies on the front nine and went 15 holes before making consecutive bogeys. She closed with two more birdies, a 15-foot putt, her longest of the round, and a two-footer.

“I was very pleased with what I shot today,” said Little, who has been on the tour for 23 years. “Wykagyl is a U.S. Open-caliber course and plays four shots harder than any other course on our tour.

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Mike Brisky, a PGA Tour rookie, made a 30-foot birdie putt on his first hole and went on to shoot a six-under-par 66, joining Mike Sullivan and Brandel Chamblee atop the leader board of the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic at Madison, Miss.