Nissan Open

Funk played a superb back nine

Fred Funk hit a six-under-par 65 to open up a three shot-lead in the first round of the Los Angeles event.

Nick Price, Cameron Beckman, Jeff Sluman and Steve Elkington were all three shots behind on three under.

A red-hot putter was mainly responsible for 46-year-old Funk setting his target.

After covering the back nine first in 31, Funk reached seven under before bogeying the 458-yard ninth.

"The first 11 holes were probably as well as I've ever putted," he said.

Leading first-round scores (US unless stated) -6: Fred Funk -3: Nick Price (Zim), Cameron Beckman, Steve Elkington (Aus), Jeff Sluman -2: Charles Howell, Bob Estes, Len Mattiace, Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Glen Hnatiuk (Can), David Duval,

"I'm not a power player by any means and I'm even shorter lately - my driver is horrendous right now - but the theme of the day was my putter was hot all day."

Colin Montgomerie managed only a four-over-par 75 in his first tournament round of the season to be 10 strokes adrift of Funk.

"I didn't hit many good shots and got what I deserved really," he said.

"It was very hard and it just didn't happen for me. I didn't drive well or hit my irons very well - and my chipping and putting was not up to much either.

"I've just got to try to get back into it tomorrow."

Tiger Woods, trying to make it two wins out of two this year, bogeyed two of his last four holes for a disappointing 72.

Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke finished on level-par 71, six behind the first-round leader.

Fifteen players had still to finish when play was called off because of darkness.

Malaysian Open

Ireland's Padraig Harrington lies four strokes behind leaders Arjun Atwal and Fredrik Andersson after the first round of the Kuala Lumpur event.

Harrington, Lee Westwood and Retief Goosen all fired opening rounds of 66 to stay in contention.

And England's Simon Dyson carded a 65 to display the form that earned him the 2000 Asian Tour Order of Merit title and also the 2000 Asian Tour Rookie of Year award.

India's Atwal was among the first players out in the morning and scorched round in 62 which included nine birdies and no dropped shots.

Swede Andersson, who has missed the cut in four of his five events this season, also found conditions to his liking at the Mines Resort course.

Leading first-round scores -9: Arjun Atwal (Ind), Fredrik Andersson (Swe) -8: Thammanoon Srirot (Tha) -7: Ted Oh (Kor) -6: Simon Dyson (Eng), Wei-Tze Yeh (Tai), Daniel Chopra (Swe), Alessandro Tadini (Ita)

European number one Goosen carded an eagle and three birdies to finish four off the leading pair.

Harrington, second to Goosen on the Order of Merit for the last two years, recorded seven birdies and two bogeys on his return to competitive golf following a nine-week winter break.

"I am surprised considering the way I was hitting it on Monday and Tuesday," said Harrington.

"I played conservatively all day because I wasn't that confident in my mental thinking but I took my chances on the par fives and easier par fours when they came."

Former European number one Westwood showed signs his poor run of form may be over with a round that included six birdies and just one dropped shot.