GOLF ROUNDUP : Three From County Advance at Amateur

Defending champion Tiger Woods of Cypress, Chris Tidland of Placentia and Scott Gibson of Huntington Beach advanced Thursday to the second round of match play in the U.S. Amateur Championships.

Woods, who shot five-over-par 75 during stroke play at Newport Country Club the previous day, took the lead against Patrick Lee on the first hole and never faltered, winning 3 and 2.

“I played really well today,” said Woods, at 19, the youngest Amateur champion. “I hit the ball well and showed a lot of patience out there. That’s something you need because the ground is so hard and the wind blows so hard, too.”

Tidland, who as an Oklahoma State senior finished second in the NCAA Championships in June, defeated Lee Eagleton of Australia, 1 up. This morning, Tidland will play George Marucci of Berwyn, Pa., who beat James Skinner of Santa Monica, 2 up.

Gibson moved on by beating Rich Balla Jr. of St. Charles, Ill., 2 and 1. His next opponent will be Chris Riley of San Diego, who eliminated Bryant MacKellar of Rochester Hills, Mich., on the 19th hole.

Woods, who will be a sophomore at Stanford this fall, will play Chad Campbell of Andrews, Tex., in the second round. A 36-hole final is scheduled Sunday.

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Jim Gallagher Jr. entertained a gallery of family and friends with a birdie-eagle start and a four-under-par 66 for the first-round lead in the World Series of Golf at Akron, Ohio, but John Daly and Greg Norman stole the limelight.

Daly, the British Open champion, injured his right hand and wrist while chipping from behind a tree on the 418-yard, par-four 14th and had to be treated in the emergency room at Akron General Medical Center after finishing with an eight-over 78.

A tour official said Daly has some swelling in his hand and wrist but intends playing today.

Norman threatened to quit the tournament in a heated argument over rules. He stormed out of the Firestone Country Club after his round of 73 and said he was planning to quit the event. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem talked him out of it by telephone.

Norman was upset by an incident on the seventh green, where he accused Mark McCumber, with whom he was playing, of tapping down a spike mark. McCumber denied doing it, claiming that he was trying to pick up an insect on his line.

Norman was not convinced and refused to sign McCumber’s scorecard. U.S. Tour rules official Mike Shea said it was one player’s word against another’s and gave McCumber the benefit of the doubt.

Gallagher, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour this season, is one stroke ahead of Payne Stewart. Jose Maria Olazabal, Fred Couples, Woody Austin, Ted Tryba, Tom Lehman and McCumber are two back at 68.

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Patty Sheehan mastered Montreal’s gusting winds and Beaconsfield Golf Club, shooting a six-under-par 66 for a five-stroke lead in the first round of the du Maurier Classic, the last of the four major events on the LPGA Tour.

Tied at 71 were Amy Benz, Jane Geddes, Lori Tatum, Laurie Rinker-Graham, Jenny Lidback, Jane Crafter, Mardi Lunn and Liselotte Neumann.