Price sitting pretty in US qualifying

Welsh Ryder Cup player Phillip Price lies joint second after the first round of the US Tour qualifying school in California, with Ireland's Richie Coughlan and Keith Nolan well down the field.

After starting with a bogey, Price picked up shots at the fourth and seventh and then had four more in a row from the 11th for a five-under-par 67. It put him only one behind American Scott Gump.

Bristol’s John Morgan had a one-under 71, but that was good enough only for joint 51st, while the 72s of Brian Davis and Greg Owen left them tied for 84th.

Little-known Englishman Sean Whiffin, Canada-based Scot Alan McLean and Ireland’s Richie Coughlan are one stroke further back, with England’s Paul Curry and Irishman Keith Nolan down on 76 and David Carter, who won the World Cup for England with Nick Faldo in 1998, 165th of the 169 players following a 78.

That round included a triple bogey eight on the fifth.