Dana Quigley hardly could believe he made a 45 1/2-foot eagle putt to close out the first round of the Tradition on Thursday in Aloha, Ore.
“Seemed like 25,” he said jokingly. “I must be putting well.”
The putt on No. 18 gave Quigley 5-under-par 67 and a share of the lead at the Tradition, the final major of the year on the Champions Tour.
Loren Roberts, John Harris and D.A. Weibring also were at 5-under at the Reserve Vineyards & Golf Club in the suburbs west of Portland, where temperatures reached 90.
“I was amazed at how soft it was,” Weibring said of the 7,150-yard South Course. “I know they haven’t had a lot of rain, so they put some water on it.”
Colorado Springs native R.W. Eaks, Walter Hall, Mark McCumber, Allen Doyle and Mark Johnson were in a group a shot back at 4-under 68.
PGA: Ben Curtis and J.L. Lewis shot 6-under 64s to share the first-round lead at the Buick Championship in Cromwell, Conn.
Curtis, the 2003 British Open winner, birdied his 17th hole, and Lewis birdied his 18th to emerge from a group of players bunched at 5-under.
Kevin Sutherland, Justin Rose, Franklin Langham, Vaughn Taylor, coming off a victory last week at the Reno-Tahoe Open, and NCAA individual runner-up Michael Putnam, who is making his PGA Tour debut, are a stroke back.
Another Pepperdine alum, Jason Gore, made his season debut as a PGA Tour member after his midseason promotion from the Nationwide Tour.
Gore, the fan favorite at the U.S. Open, had no magic at the 6,820-yard TPC at River Highlands, finishing at 4-over 74.
LPGA: Defending champion Catriona Matthew was one of five players tied for the lead – in the biggest first-round logjam this year on the tour – at the Wendy’s Championship for Children in Dublin, Ohio.
Matthew shot a 6-under 66, a score matched by Paula Marti, Soo-Yun Kang, Heather Daly- Donofrio and Marisa Baena.
Another nine players were a shot back as the 144-player field took advantage of soft greens and a short course to post 69 subpar scores.
The five leaders make up an international team by themselves, representing Scotland (Matthew), Spain (Marti), South Korea (Kang), the United States (Daly-Donofrio) and Colombia (Baena).
Rookie of the year front-runner Paula Creamer had a 68.
U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Morgan Pressel, playing on a sponsor’s exemption, opened with a 70.
European PGA: Angel Cabrera, Robert-Jan Derksen and Brett Rumford shot 7-under 65s to share the first-round lead at the BMW International Open in Nord-Eichenried, Germany.
Thomas Bjorn and Ian Poulter were among a nine-man group at 66, while John Daly opened at 68.
U.S. Amateur: Northwestern senior Dillon Dougherty and Canadians Ryan Yip, Mark Leon and J.C. Deacon won two matches apiece at Merion Golf Club to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur Championship in Ardmore, Pa.
In the lower bracket, Dawie Van Der Walt, Edoardo Molinari, Anthony Kim and Austin Eaton III advanced.
