Allen's luck finally changes

MARK ALLEN had enough luck on the first day of the New Zealand Open for him to lead by the end of the first round.

The Australian came to New Zealand dogged by three weeks of bad luck and felt he had merely balanced the ledger yesterday after reeling off huge putts to card a seven-under-par 64 on the par-71 course.

The 27-year-old is one stroke ahead of New Zealand's Michael Long, who fired a bogey-free 65 to lead fellow Kiwi Stephen Scahill and Australians Paul Gow and Shane Tait on five-under.

On a good day for home-country players, Greg Turner fired two late birdies to sit with two others at four-under, a stroke up on Marcus Wheelhouse, one of six players, including defending champion Peter O'Malley, at three-under. Grant Waite and Mark Brown are among a group of five on 69.

Nearly all the good scoring came in the morning when light breezes left the course open to attack.

For Allen, it was a welcome return to a course that has been good to him. He shot a fourth-round 67 here in the 1991 open to earn enough money to keep his tour card. In 1993, he also won a pro-am.

Allen started the day in sensational fashion, holing a 30-foot birdie at the first, just missing a birdie from 40 feet at the second, holing from 20 feet at the third, from 30 feet at the fourth and from 40 feet at the fifth.

. Laura Davies teamed up with John Duly to score 63 and leave them in the three-way tie for the lead after the opening round of the £1 million J C Penney Classic at Tarpon Springs in Florida yesterday.

Swedish duo Annika Sorenstam and Jesper Parnevik and Americans Donna Andrews and Mike Hulbett are also on the nine-under-par total in an event which pairs players from the US PGA and LPGA Tours.