Lowery, Sutherland Share Tucson Lead at 64

Competitors in the Tucson Open, out of the spotlight because they didn’t make the field in the simultaneous Match Play Championship one time zone to the west, took it out on the scoreboard Thursday.

Steve Lowery and David Sutherland shot eight-under-par 64s--good for a one-shot lead on Tom Scherrer and Kevin Wentworth.

“Only one guy is going to win,” Sutherland said about the field being diluted by the match play. He had the lead after three rounds in Los Angeles last week, ahead of match-play stars Tiger Woods and David Duval, and finished 12th.

“It’s not like they’re giving away 10 championships this week,” Sutherland said. “Quite frankly, this tournament field is fairly similar to most of the fields we play on tour after, say, the PGA Championship. I guarantee there’s not a lot of guys playing better at the world match play than Kirk Triplett.”

The 7,109-yard Tucson National course played soft after a cloudy, breezy day with intermittent drizzle, and there were other spectacular scores.

Steve Flesch, Jim Carter, Blaine McAllister, qualifier Brian Kontak and 1996 U.S. Open winner Steve Jones were two shots back, with cart-riding rookie Casey Martin, Mike Springer, Jason Caron and Triplett, who won at Riviera on Sunday, at 67.

Martin shot his best score in 16 rounds on tour despite bogeying No. 18 when his approach was short and he two-putted from 20 feet.

“I played great. I have no complaints,” Martin said.

Of the leaders, Sutherland looks to have the hottest hand.

He arrived in Tucson riding a streak of making four consecutive cuts, with each score better than the previous one. After missing the cut in the Bob Hope, he went from from 69th in Phoenix four weeks ago to 56th to 14th to 12th.

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Jane Crafter of Australia and Laura Davies of Britain shot five-under 67s to share the first-round lead in the Australian Ladies Masters at Gold Coast. Karrie Webb, winner of last week’s Women’s Australian Open in Melbourne, was a shot off the lead.