Wells Fargo Championship Update

Bill Haas' 65 matches tournament record in Wells Fargo

Bill Haas Quail Hollow

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by Associated Press

Story Created: May 4, 2011 at 6:55 PM EDT

Story Updated: May 6, 2011 at 10:57 AM EDT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Of all the times Bill Haas has played Quail Hollow, he never had a round quite like this.

Haas had stress-free birdies on all the par 5s and did little wrong on the rest of the holes Thursday in the Wells Fargo Championship, matching the tournament record for lowest opening round with an 8-under 64.

It was his best score by four shots at Quail Hollow on the PGA Tour, and way better than two dozen rounds he played when he would tag along with his father, Jay Haas, on the special trips they made to the Charlotte, N.C., course.

Haas had a two-shot lead over David Toms and Jonathan Byrd, who each had a 66 in the morning when it was barely above 40 degrees at the start of the tournament with a north wind that is uncommon for this tournament.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy made some errors early and never quite caught up. In his first trip back to America after his Sunday collapse in the Masters, the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland had a 75.

Pat Perez and Lucas Glover were at 67, while Rickie Fowler overcame two bogeys in his first three holes and is in a group at 68 that includes Vijay Singh and Stuart Appleby.

Phil Mickelson, in his first event since the Masters, hit two balls in the water on par 5s and scrambled for par each time.

The first one was critical. He already was 1 over for the tournament through six holes when he came out of the pine straw and into the pond at No. 7. He holed a 12-foot par putt, then made birdie on the next four holes. He shot a 69, as did Padraig Harrington.

Champions Tour: Tom Lehman shot a bogey-free 5-under 67 at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala., to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Regions Tradition, the Champions Tour's first major of the season.

Lehman had two victories, a second and a third in six events this year on the 50-and-over tour.

Nick Price, Mark Calcavecchia, Wayne Levi and Chien-Soon Lu were tied for second in the first professional event at Shoal Creek since the 1990 PGA Championship.

Jay Haas had a 69. Fred Couples opened with a 72.

European Tour: Scottish rookie Scott Jamieson shot a 6-under 66 to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the Spanish Open at Real Golf Club El Prat in Terrassa, Spain.

England's Steve Webster, India's Jeev Milkha Singh, France's Romain Wattel and Spain's Pablo Larrazabal opened with 67s.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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