US CHAMPIONS TOUR:Christy O'Connor junior is just two shots of the pace after the first round of the Champions Tour, Royal Caribbean Classic in Florida.
O'Connor opened with a four-under-par 68 to trail Bobby Watkins by two, with David Eger, Walter Morgan, Gary Koch, Jerry McGee and Rodger Davis tied for third place at three under par.
O'Connor didn't drop a shot to the course in his 68. He reached the turn in one-under 34 after opening with a birdie, and came home in 34 with birdies at the 13th, 14th and 16th.
Watkins' round included eight birdies in halves of 32 and 34, dropping shots at the second and 17th but finishing in style with his eighth birdie at the 18th.
Koch, a six-time PGA Tour winner and making his debut, had seven birdies in his round but dropped four shots for his 69.
CHAMPIONS TOUR - ROYAL CARIBBEAN CLASSIC (Florida) First round scores: 66 - B Wadkins; 68 - Christy O'Connor; 69 - D Eger, W Morgan, G Koch, J McGee,R Davis. 70 - D Barr, J Ahern, W Hall, A Doyle, G Morgan, M McCullough, B Walzel; 71 - J Dent, T Dill, K Zarley , B Kratzert, T Purtzer, M Hill, B Fleisher, D Tewell, J Inman, J Jacobs, L Thompson, I Aoki.
CHALLENGE TOUR: Damien McGrane is just three shots off the pace after an opening round of two-under-par 69 in the first round of the Guatemala Open yesterday.
A sparkling five-under-par 66 gave Sweden's Peter Hanson a one stroke lead after the first round.
Hanson leads the tournament, the second event of the 2003 European Challenge Tour season, from compatriot Johan Edfors, Ilya Goroneskoul of France, Finland's Tuomas Tuovinen and the Argentine pair of Sergio Acevedo and Hernan Rey.
Eamonn Brady with a 79 and Stephen Browne (81) have a lot of ground to make up if they are to make the cut. Starting from the10th, Hanson got off to the perfect start with a birdie three before making four consecutive birdies at the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th.
"The morning was a little chilly but I got off to a very acceptable start and then halfway through my first nine I began to strike the ball really well," Hanson said. "On the front nine unfortunately my game cooled off a bit."
AMATEUR: Ireland's Colm Moriarty and Justin Kehoe are on course to meet in the final of the New South Wales Amateur Championship at the Lakes Golf Club in Sydney.
At opposite ends of the draw, both have worked their way through to today's semi-finals. Athlone's Moriarty was again in sparkling form in beating Wales' Gareth Wright 6 and 4, while Kehoe, the World Universities champion from Birr, was also up for the task in beating local Michael Lambert 2 and 1.
In the other quarter-final matches, Mathew Holden of New Zealand had a 7 and 5 win over Julian Reynolds while James Nitties was a 6 and 5 winner over Scott McGuinness.
In this morning's semi-finals Moriarty takes on Holden while Kehoe comes up against Nitties.
