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Dawson takes first round advantage

Marco Dawson posted a five-under- par 67 on Friday and has a one-shot lead over five players after the first day of play at the BellSouth Classic. Steve Flesch, Scott McCarron, Chris DiMarco, Brandt Jobe and Kaname Yokoo all share second at minus-four.

Retief Goosen, David Toms, Mark Hensby, Mathew Goggin, Jerry Kelly, Mike Sposa, Shigeki Maruyama, Cliff Kresge and John Daly are tied for seventh at three-under par.

The first round was pushed back to Friday after rain wiped out the opening day of play on Thursday and two players were unable to complete the first round Friday because of darkness.

There has been no decision made as to cutting the tournament to 54 holes or extending play through Monday, which would cut into Masters week. Playing 36 holes on one of the weekend days is also a possibility.

Dawson opened on the front nine at the TPC at Sugarloaf and had trouble getting into red figures. At the first, he missed a five-foot birdie putt, then missed a pair of 15-footers for birdies at the next two holes.

At the sixth, Dawson nestled a pitching wedge eight feet from the hole and converted his first birdie of the round. He played a four- iron onto the green at the 458-yard seventh and landed the ball three feet from the hole for back-to-back birdies.

The ninth hole was the only bogey of the day for Dawson. He hit his approach left of the green and chipped the ball down the green and into water. Dawson chipped on and rolled home the bogey-saving putt.

Dawson quickly reclaimed the shot he dropped with tap-in birdie at 10, the result of a beautiful eight-iron approach. He carded his second consecutive birdie at 11 when he nailed a 35-foot putt.

Dawson posted three pars before he hit another eight-iron to the 15th green, and rolled in a 20-foot putt for his fifth birdie of the round. For the third time on the day, Dawson made it back-to-back birdies as he made a four-footer at 16 for his 67.

"I putted well, finally," said Dawson. "I drove the ball well, so I set myself up well today and hit my irons mostly well. When you're putting well, it takes a lot of pressure off the rest of your game."

Dawson is playing the PGA Tour this year on a medical exemption as he missed most of last season after back surgery.

"About this time last year, the disk was pushing on the nerve and I had pain all the way down my leg," said Dawson, who has never finished higher than 71st on the PGA Tour money list. "Finally, in New Orleans, I couldn't bend over to hit a putt or put a tee in the ground. I had a ruptured disk and when I went to see the doctor, there was good news and bad news."

The bad news was that he would have to miss the rest of the PGA Tour season, but the good news was that was able to recover quickly and now his back "sure does feel good right now."

Flesch could have tied Dawson at the top of the leaderboard but he bogeyed his 17th, the eighth at the TPC at Sugarloaf. He hit a five-iron short of the green and mishit his chip onto the green.

"The course played pretty long," said Flesch. "I just hit a lot of good iron shots, made a few putts. It was that simple."

McCarron eagled the par-five 18th when he ran home a 40-footer. He also bogeyed the par-five fourth to drop him from a share of the lead.

DiMarco posted four birdies on his second nine holes for his piece of second place. Jobe was flawless on Friday with four birdies and no bogeys, while Yokoo birdied his 18th, the par-four ninth, to get to four-under.

Defending champion Phil Mickelson is tied for 16th at two-under and is joined by Davis Love III and Stewart Cink.

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