Golf Roundup : Byrum Isn’t Counting but Shoots 64

Curt Byrum was having so much fun, he was oblivious to exactly what he was doing.

Byrum, who hasn’t won in five years on the PGA tour, tied the course record with an eight-under-par 64 Thursday and took a two-stroke lead in the Memorial Tournament at Dublin, Ohio.

“I really wasn’t aware of the record,” Byrum said. “I was just trying to enjoy myself. I started hitting them close and making the short putts.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a better ball-striking round. That’s as solid as I can play. The fairways were perfect and the greens soft. You could go right for the pins.”

Byrum, 28, birdied the final hole to tie the course record set by Mark McCumber in 1984. He missed only one green and didn’t make a bogey.

Joey Sindelar is second at 66, followed at 67 by Tom Watson and Scott Hoch.

Masters champion Larry Mize leads a group at 68 that includes David Graham, Scott Simpson, South African David Frost, Kenny Knox and Fred Wadsworth, who had a hole-in-one on the fourth hole.

Jack Nicklaus, the tournament host and founder, shot a 73 on the course he designed and built. Defending champion Hal Sutton had a 74.

Byrum capped a string of three consecutive birdies with his longest putt of the day, a 20-footer with about two feet of break, on the fifth hole. He hit a 9-iron to within four feet on the ninth and turned in 32.

A pair of 10-foot putts produced birdies on the 12th and 13th, and he wedged to within three feet on the 15th. That put him seven under for the day, and he acquired a share of the record with another wedge shot that left him a three-foot putt on the 18th.

Kathryn Young, playing the best golf of her nine-year pro career, shot a seven-under-par 65 at Corning, N.Y., to take a two-shot lead after the first round of the $250,000 LPGA Corning tournament.

Young, 32, one-putted her first six holes on the way to the best first-round score in the nine-year history of the tournament.

“I haven’t played that well ever,” said Young, whose previous best finish on the LPGA Tour was a fourth in 1984. “After I made my birdie on 16 I felt a little light-headed, and I got goose bumps when I made the birdie on 18.”

She birdied eight holes and bogied only the par-4 ninth hole on the way to the lead.

Pat Bradley matched Young for 17 holes but double-bogeyed the 18th and wound up alone at 67.

JoAnne Carner, Dawn Coe, Robin Walton, Jerilyn Britz, Martha Nause and Jackie Bertsch are three strokes behind at 68, while Jane Geddes, who won the LPGA Championship last week and is the tour’s top money-winner this season, is at 69.

Bob Lewis won his fourth match in two days to lead the United States Walker Cup team to a 16 1/2-7 1/2 victory over Britain and Ireland at Sunningdale, England.

The U.S. team won the biennial match-play tournament, which began in 1921, for the 28th time against two losses and one tie. The winning margin was the largest since the competition changed to its 24-point format in 1961.

Lewis, from Warren, Ohio, rode three birdies and an eagle to a 3 and 2 victory over David Carrick. Lewis, who beat Paul Girvan in a singles match Wednesday, teamed with Bill Loeffler of Littleton, Colo., to win morning doubles matches both days.

U.S. amateur champion Buddy Alexander of Baton Rouge, La., clinched the victory with a 5 and 4 victory over David Curry. Jay Sigel of Berwyn, Pa., followed with a 6 and 5 victory over Girvan, and Bill Mayfair of Phoenix beat Bobby Eggo, 1-up.

Jim Sorenson of Bloomington, Minn., drew against Graeme Shaw, while Jeremy Robinson beat Len Mattiace of Sawgrass, Fla., 1-up. Bill Andrade of Bristol, R.I., lost, 4 and 2, to Colin Montgomerie, and Loeffler lost, 3 and 2, to John McHenry.

In the doubles, Lewis and Loeffler defeated Carrick and Curry, 4 and 3; Sorenson and Brian Montgomery of Bristow, Okla., scored a 4 and 3 victory over Paul Mayo and George McGregor; Mattiace and Chris Kite of Hiddenhite, N.C., beat Shaw and Montgomerie, 5 and 3, and Sigel and Andrade lost, 4 and 2, to McHenry and Robinson.