LUKE DONALD MAKES SOLID START WITH 68 IN NEW ORLEANS

Luke Donald, pipped for victory in last weekend's US PGA Tour event, has picked up where he left off with a four-under-par 68 in the first round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana, Avondale, Louisiana.
Donald birdied the par-5 second and also picked up a shot at the fifth. Consecutive birdies on the last two holes lifted him into the top 10 at the end of the day.
The English Ryder Cup player is in joint ninth position, two shots behind the joint leaders, Americans Bubba Watson and late finisher Matt Jones.
Graeme McDowell's miserable run of form continues. The Ulsterman had a 73 to be sharing 74th place. But at least that's better than Aberdeen-born Australian Michael Sim who had a 74 to be joint 96th ... and Justin Rose had a 77 to be languishing in a share of 137th spot.
FIRST ROUND LEADERS
Par 72
Players from US unless stated
66 Bubba Watson, Matt Jones.
67 Joe Durrant, Tommy Gainey, Carl Pettersson (sweden), John Rollins.
Selected scores
68 Luke Donald (England) (T9).
71 Brian Davis (England) (T33).
73 Graeme McDowell (N Ireland) (T74).
74 Michael Sim (Scotland/Australia) (T96).
77 Justin Rose (England) (T137).

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NATIONWIDE TOUR EVENT HIT BY STORMY WEATHER

Play on the first day of the US Nationwide Tour event - the South Georgia Classic - at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club, Valdosta, Georgia was finally called off for the day after repeated suspensions of play because of the bad weather hitting the east coast of the States.
No-one had completed his round.
Inverness exile Russell Knox, whose second-place finish as a Monday pre-qualifier in the last Nationwide Tour event - the week before last - earned him automatic playing rights on America's No 2 tour, was level par after four holes when he was called in with everybody else.

CHALLENGE TOUR'S EGYPTIAN OPEN IS CANCELLED THIS YEAR

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
The Egyptian Open on the Challenge Tour, due to be played in Cairo from October 19-22, will not take place this year due to recent changes to the country’s political situation.
With a new constitution currently in development and parliamentary and presidential elections due to take place later in the year, the Egyptian Golf Federation was reluctantly unable to commit to staging the tournament.
But Ayman Hussein, Chairman of the Egyptian Golf Federation, remained confident that the event would return to the Challenge Tour Schedule next year.
He said: “Because of the changes that will take place to the ministries which govern all activities, most notably the Sports Council and the Egyptian Tourism Authority, regrettably we are unable to make any mid to long-term commitments to any organisation at this stage.
“However, we are committed to working with the Challenge Tour in the future to develop the Egyptian Open. We are expecting to be able to make commitments again by the end of this year or beginning of next, and we remain hopeful that we can secure a date for the tournament on the Challenge Tour Schedule and extend the agreement we have with the Tour.”
Alain de Soultrait, Director of the Challenge Tour, said: “Whilst we are naturally disappointed not to play the Egyptian Open, as last year’s event was a huge success, we fully understand and support the decision made by the Egyptian Golf Federation, and we look forward to the successful return of the Egyptian Open to the Challenge Tour next year.”

HENSON ON HIGH WITH 65 AT CLEARWATER MASTERS

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY ASIAN TOUR
Batu Gajah, Perak , Malaysia: Berry Henson took the clubhouse lead at the weather-hit Clearwater Masters 2011 with Thanyakon Khrongpha and Hsu Chia-jen trailing closely on Thursday.
Henson of the United States returned with a blemish free card with seven birdies to open up a one-shot lead over highly rated Thanyakon of Thailand and Chinese Taipei’s Hsu in the US$75,000 Asian Development Tour event.
Will Yanagisawa of the United States, who was former teammates with Tiger Woods in college, and Thailand’s Atthaphon Prathummanee shared fourth place on matching 68s at the Clearwater Sanctuary Golf Resort in Batu Gajah, Perak, which is a 90-minute drive from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur .
The first round of the Clearwater Masters was suspended due to thunderstorm at 4.40pm. A total of 31 players will return at 7.40am on Friday to complete their rounds.
Mohd Iylia Jamil was the best placed Malaysian in tied 10th position after his round of 70.
Henson, who earned his Asian Tour card in Qualifying School in Thailand earlier this year, made a fast start with a birdie on the 10th hole before turning in 33.
He made three consecutive birdies from the second hole and saved a crucial par with an up-and-down on the fifth hole before posting a final birdie on hole eight.
“I got off to a great start. I started with a birdie and from there I began to cruise. I hit about 17 greens and missed only one green which was right on the fringe. It was a pretty easy day,” said the 31-year-old.
After missing the halfway cut in Indonesia last week, Henson made adjustments to his game by watching videos of his swing.
“I took a few days off after missing the cut last week and did some video work to see what went off. I made a couple of adjustments to my set up and slowed my tempo down a little bit. That worked for me,” said Henson.
Before joining the Asian Tour, Henson plied his trade on the Nationwide Tour and in several circuits in the United States . “I didn’t get any status in the Nationwide this year and knew I needed a status somewhere to improve my game and the Asian Tour was a step for me to go through. It has been nothing but good for me and my game,” said the American.
Thailand ’s rising star Thanyakon, who won on the Asian Development Tour last season, turned in a superb 30 where he holed two massive 30 feet birdie putts on holes 11 and 16.
The 21-year-old rued his wayward driving when he carded a bogey on the second hole after losing his golf ball. He returned with two more birdies against one bogey for a round of 66.
“I have been practising a lot with my irons and putting but my driving seems to be going everywhere. I could have gone lower if I didn’t lose my ball on the second but shooting a 66 is still a good score,” said the two-time gold medallist in the Southeast Asian Games.
Thanyakon, who also earned his Asian Tour card in Qualifying School , hopes to draw confidence with a good result this week to kick start his season.
“I was feeling very nervous when I played in the Indonesian Masters (he missed the halfway cut) last week. I do not know why. I didn’t have the confidence I used to have so I hope to play well this week and gain more confidence for the rest of the year,” added the Thai.
Chinese Taipei’s Hsu, posted a flawless 66 with three birdies in each half to lie one stroke from the clubhouse leader.
“It was an okay round for me. Everything worked out as plan and I’m happy with the position I’m in. It sets me up perfectly for the next three days,” said Hsu, who finished second on the Asian Development Tour Order of Merit last season.
LEADING FIRST ROUND SCORES
65 Berry HENSON (US)
66 Thanyakon KHRONGPHA (THA), HSU Chia-jen (TPE)
68 Will YANAGISAWA (US), Atthaphon PRATHUMMANEE (THA)
69 Jonathan MOORE (US), Pawin INGKHAPRADIT, (THA), Mithun PERERA (SRI), Yosuke TSUKADA (JPN)
70 Choengchai PANPUMPO (THA), Masaki SAKATA (JPN), Pasamet POGAMNERD (THA), Mohd Iylia JAMIL (MAS), KIM Young-Jin (SKOR)
71 R. Nachimuthu (MAS), Airil Rizman (MAS), S.Siva CHANDHRAN (MAS), Matt DOCKING (AUS), LIM Eng-Seng (MAS), LEE Kuan-hung (TPE), John SHIN (CAN)

McGRANE LEADS BY ONE AT BALLANTINE'S CHAMPIONSHIP

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Ireland’s Damien McGrane holds a one-shot lead after the opening round of the Ballantine’s Championship in South Korea today.
The 40-year-old compiled a six-under-par 66 at Blackstone GC to lie one clear of Chile’s Felipe Aguilar, England’s Richard Finch and home favourite Park Sang-hyun.
“I made plenty of birdies and I putted nicely,” McGrane said after mixing eight birdies with two bogeys.
“I holed everything inside 15 feet, so I made two bogeys which were out of nowhere really but that's golf I suppose.
“The fairways are generous, and just like last week, you make birdies on day one and keep going till the end of the tournament.
“That's what I started off doing, so hopefully I'll do it at end of the tournament.”
McGrane has not had a top-20 finish yet this season, but his 22nd place at last week’s Volvo China Open – where he picked up his only European Tour title three years ago - was his best of the campaign.
“I hit a few good iron shots there at the end, and I hit good putts, and obviously I like to finish strong and I finished strong there today,” he added.
Finch has also gone three years without a European Tour victory, but the 33-year-old has been in good form recently, notching up three top-11 finishes in his last seven outings.
“It's been steady really,” he said after a bogey-free round with five birdies – the highlight a four at the last after reaching the green in two with a “Monica Seles-style grunt” and two-putting.
“It was quite bizarre. I played lovely in Bahrain and sneaked up at the end with a good last round there. That got me to about 20 or something. Then Qatar, played nice there - that was a good week.
“Málaga was a strange week, because I had been playing well and not really scoring but that week I didn't play very well and scored brilliantly. That was one I was pleased to have finished as high up as I did, but didn't feel as if I could have done any better than that.
“Last week never quite got into it, and scoring was so low, you have one mediocre round - I was pleased it was a good round last week to move up.
“Today I feel like I got up out of the right side of the bed and a few things went my way when I hit putts too hard, and I'm thinking, please hit the hole, and it sort of hit the hole and disappeared and it's like, oh, that's a two shot swing basically. There is that little bit of the X factor sort of thing where you do need that little bit of luck and things to go your way. Hopefully I still have a bit left in the tank but certainly took advantage today.”
Like Finch, Aguilar has been in fine form recently after finishing sixth in Spain last month and third in Malaysia two weeks ago.
And he continued his good run with four birdies in an outward 32 en route to a bogey-free round.
“You never know until the fat lady sings,” he said. “It's just the beginning of the round - you can lose the tournament today, you can't win it.
“We are just getting ourselves in position to be in contention. I came off to a pretty hot start.
“I made a couple of long putts that really helped, and I could really feel the tension, especially coming into the last couple of holes, but really happy with the round.”
Park is playing only his third European Tour event, but the 26 year old was in good form with six birdies and a single dropped shot.
“Overall, I think I did pretty well today, and, in fact, because of the distance of each course isn't that long, I actually focused not on getting long hits but actually getting my ball on the fairway,” he said.
World Number One Lee Westwood double bogeyed his last hole of the day for a level par 72, which was two behind his Ryder Cup opponent Dustin Johnson.
Aberdeen's Richie Ramsay shot a four-under-par 68.
Ryder Cup stars Westwood and Ian Poulter had mixed fortunes.
Westwood got to a high of three under par but, having started at the 10th, bogeyed the seventh and shot a double-bogey six at the ninth, his last hole'
Poulter, the World Number 17, made an awful start with consecutive double bogeys at the tenth and 11th, before recovering somewhat with a birdie at the 14th and an eagle at the first. He bogeyed the second to finish two over par.

FIRST-ROUND LEADERBOARD
Par 72 (36-36)
66 Damien McGrane (Ireland) 33-33.
67 Sang-hyun Park (S Korea) 33-34, Richard Finch (England) 34-33, Felipe Aguilar (Chile) 35-32.
68 Richie Ramsay (Scotland) 34-34, Chinnarat Phadungsil (Thailand) 34-34.

OTHER SCOTS' SCORES
75 David Drysdale 38-37, Peter Whiteford 38-38 (T93).
79 Alastair Forsyth 37-42 (T142).