Golf Roundup : Just Like His College Days, Blake Takes Lead With 66

Jay Don Blake was a college phenom at Utah State who has struggled to make it as a pro.

Blake, who didn’t even play competitively for four years after failing to qualify for the tour on his first try, shot a six-under-par 66 Thursday to take a one-shot lead in the opening round of the Atlanta golf tournament at Marietta, Ga.

“I felt good, never got impatient and felt like I played pretty well out there,” said Blake, who ranks 109th on the PGA Tour money list this season.

Blake won the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship in 1980 and was runner-up the next year, but disappeared after failing in the PGA qualifying school.

He worked at a golf course and in a hardware store before making another attempt, qualifying for the tour in the fall of 1986. His best finish was a tie for ninth in the Pensacola Open last year.

Mike Hulbert, who claimed his only PGA Tour victory in the St. Jude tournament three years ago, was alone in second with a 67. Bob Eastwood, Russ Cochran, Don Pooley and Dave Rummells shared third at 68.

Kenny Knox had an eagle-2 on the fourth hole in his round of 69 that left him tied with Hubert Green, Willie Wood, Calvin Peete, Payne Stewart, Ray Stewart and Isao Aoki.

Dawn Coe and Cindy Hill shot four-under-par 67s to share the first-round lead of an LPGA tournament at Corning, N.Y.

Tracey Kerdyk, leading rookie on the LPGA Tour, was one shot behind, and Ayako Okomoto, Barb Mucha and Martha Nause trailed by two strokes.

The start of the tournament was delayed 35 minutes because of early morning fog that shrouded the course.

Hill, recovering from an inflammation of her pancreas and a back injury, had six birdies and two bogeys. She made a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole to tie for the lead.

Coe also had six birdies and two bogeys despite not playing a practice round before the tournament because she was in Toronto winning a non-tour mixed international event with Dave Barr.