Daly in Four-Way Tie for Lead

Maybe John Daly should keep his house.

Daly, who was idled because of headaches and watched last year’s tournament from his home off the 16th fairway at the TPC at Southwind course in Memphis, Tenn., shot a seven-under-par 64 Thursday to share the first-round lead in the St. Jude’s Classic.

John Cook, Nike Tour player Patrick Lee and rookie Mike Swartz, who played with Daly a year at the University of Arkansas, are also at 64.

Daly had seven birdies, one eagle and a bogey before his neighbors. His best performance this year was a tie for 10th at the Kemper Open.

“They don’t get a chance to see me play at other tournaments,” he said. “To win a tournament, not only in front of family but a lot of special friends and great people, it would mean a lot to me.”

The three other leaders also have something to prove.

Cook hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since 1992 and has so soured on his game that he is said to have contemplated retiring from golf.

Swartz has missed eight of 14 cuts this year. And Lee finally picked up an exemption from sponsor FedEx after being turned down in previous years as an amateur at the University of Mississippi.

Lee, who finished second on the Nike Tour last week, had seven birdies, an eagle and two bogeys.

Ronnie Black, John Adams, Jim Carter, Stuart Appleby and Frank Lickliter were tied at 65. David Peoples, Anders Forsbrand and Steve Jurgensen were at 66.

Daly used his zero-iron off his first tee and sank a 15-footer for birdie. He missed a six-footer on the par-three No. 14 for his only bogey but came back with a 45-foot putt for eagle on the par-five No. 16 and a 35-footer for birdie on 17. He added birdies on Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 8 to go seven-under.

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The first round of the LPGA Rochester International was rained out and officials shortened the tournament to 54 holes.

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Former UC Santa Barbara golfer Jeff Gilchrist, medalist in the stroke-play portion of the event, was eliminated in the second round of the 85th California Golf Assn. State Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach.

Gilchrist, who three-putted five times, fell 3 and 1 to Justin Lee, 16, of Danville, Calif., continuing a trend in which only 10 medalists have won the event.

Lee was not the only 16-year-old to advance. Culver City’s John Leary outlasted James Evans of Belmont, 4 and 3, closing out the match with birdies on Nos. 15 and 16. Leary will face Mark Johnson of Helendale in the quarterfinals, thanks to Johnson’s 2 and 1 decision over James Skinner of Santa Monica.

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Elise Kimm of Valley Village shot her second one-under-par 71 to earn medalist honors and gain the No. 1 seeding heading into the first round of match play at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship in Alton, Ill. Kimm beat Jennifer Choi of Beverly Hills by a stroke.

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America’s best amateur women begin play today against the combined Britain and Ireland team in the biennial Curtis Cup at Killarney, Ireland.

The Americans hold a 20-5-3 advantage in the series, first played in 1932. But the U.S. has won only one of the last five and none overseas since 1984.