Lidback a One-Shot Wonder

Jenny Lidback’s recurring back problems flared up, but so did her penchant for dramatic shots in the first LPGA event of the year.

Lidback, who slept on the floor to help her aching back, holed a six-iron from 135 yards Friday en route to a three-under-par 69 and a one-stroke lead after the first round of the HealthSouth Inaugural in Orlando, Fla.

A year ago at the season-opening Tournament of Champions, Lidback registered her first two aces on the LPGA Tour in the third and fourth round.

Jane Crafter had a 70, and Patty Sheehan and Meg Mallon were at 71, but no one else in the field of 132 managed to break par at Grand Cypress Resort on a day when fierce, swirling winds either knocked down shots or swept them across the green.

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Gil Morgan and Gibby Gilbert shot seven-under 65s to share a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the winners-only MasterCard Championship at Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

Morgan, whose six wins on the Senior PGA Tour last year were overshadowed by Hale Irwin’s nine, had a bogey-free round, including birdies on all four of the oceanside course’s par fours.

Gilbert, who gained entry into the tournament by winning the Royal Caribbean Classic, jumped to a quick lead with four birdies--plus a bogey--over the first five holes then added four more birdies.

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Europe’s Ryder Cup committee announced a new selection formula that would have excluded one of their most successful players, Sweden’s Jesper Parnevik, from last year’s winning team.

The new regulations stipulate that wild-card choices for the 1999 Ryder Cup must be members of the European Tour.

That would have ensured that Parnevik, who lost only one of his four matches at the 1997 Ryder Cup, won by Europe at Valderrama in Spain, would have been ineligible because he concentrated on the U.S. tour.