Ryder Cup hopeful in the hunt

An eagle two on the 296-yard 15th helped Ryder Cup hopeful Carl Pettersson to a four under par 66 that left him only one off the lead after the first round at the Buick Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut.

Things did not begin too well for the Swede, winner of the Memorial Tournament at the start of June, when he followed five opening pars with a six on the long sixth.

But Pettersson, eligible for September’s match after rejoining the European tour this season and ninth on the world points list from which the first five members of Ian Woosnam’s side will come, birdied three of the next six.

Heath Slocum, Harrison Frazar, Scott Verplank and Australian Peter Lonard each fired five-under-par 65s to share the lead.

Slocum, who missed the cut in three of his last five events, made five birdies in a bogey-free round at the River Highlands course.

He is seeking his first title since last year’s Southern Farm Bureau Classic.

“Today started off with just quality good shots and then I just made some putts and got a little bit of confidence,” Slocum said. “I didn’t hit my absolute best, but all my misses were in pretty good places.”

Frazar made a bogey on the 15th and six birdies in his first tour start since withdrawing after the first round of last month’s St Jude Classic.

He has made just one cut in his last six tournaments.

Verplank twice has come close to his first title since the 2001 Bell Canadian Open, finishing tied for second at the Bob Hope Classic and FBR Open in back-to-back events earlier this year.

He also sank five birdies without a bogey.

Although he made a bogey on the 13th hole, Lonard followed with four consecutive birdies and finished with six in his lowest round on the PGA Tour this year.

“I prefer to play these style of courses,” Lonard said.

“This course this year is a little different to what we normally play. As it looks this like this week, it’s going to be pretty soft and you can give it a bit of a smash, but you have to hit your shots.”

Six players are one shot off the pace, including 1995 US Open champion Corey Pavin, who lost a play-off here to Billy Ray Brown in 1991.

Pavin is winless on tour since the 1996 Colonial.

“I didn’t hit every green, but I was close enough to all the greens where even my chips were not difficult chips,” Pavin said. “It was a nice, pretty clean round, pretty stress free, for the most part.”

A dozen golfers are bunched at 67, including past champions Olin Browne, Woody Austin and Brent Geiberger and 1986 PGA champion Bob Tway.

The highest-ranked player in the field is Nick O’Hern, who is ranked 23rd and also carded an opening 67.