Curry, New Course Spice Up the Tour

Englishman Paul Curry is new on the PGA Tour, and so is the golf course he humbled Thursday.

Curry shot a bogey-free eight-under-par 63 in the first round of the John Deere Classic at Silvis, Ill., good enough for a two-stroke lead.

“It was just one of those days when the putts go in,” Curry said of his round at the Tournament Players Club at Deere Run, which opened last month. “When you have days like this, you wonder why you don’t do it all the time.”

Curry, who is from Essex, played on the European tour until 1997, when he had to take six months off because of a back injury. Since then, he has been on the Buy.com tour.

Six players were tied for second. Two of them, Tim Herron and David Frost, were seven under going to their final holes, but bogeyed.

Former PGA and British Open champion John Daly was five shots back.

Frost’s three-iron approach shot on the 18th drifted left and into a pond guarding that side of the green. Herron’s shot landed in a sand trap to the right of the No. 9 green, then he chipped to within two feet of the hole but missed the putt.

One of the day’s highlights was a double eagle on the par-five second hole by Frank Lickliter. On his second shot, he hit a 257-yard three-wood that landed in front of the green and rolled into the hole.

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Australian Noel Ratcliffe shot a four-under 67 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Senior British Open at Newcastle, Northern Ireland.

Hubert Green and John Bland of South Africa were tied for second, a shot ahead of defending champion Christy O’Connor of Ireland on the 6,614-yard Royal County Down course.

Green eagled the par-five first hole, dropping an eight-foot putt after a fine seven-iron approach.