Sporting Digest: Golf

Sam Torrance had his best round on the European Tour for nearly two years yesterday, while Colin Montgomerie suffered his worst for nine months. Torrance, three months away from his 45th birthday, completed the first round of the Peugeot French Open at Le Golf National, near Paris, with an eight-under-par 64, one outside the course record. He leads by two from the Argentinian Eduardo Romero and the Spaniard Pedro Linhart and by 10 from his fellow Scot Montgomerie, whose 74 leaves him in jeopardy of missing his first halfway cut in Europe since the 1996 Open championship at Lytham.

PEUGEOT FRENCH OPEN (Le Golf National, Paris) Leading first-round scores (GB or Irl unless stated): 64 S Torrance. 66 P Linhart (Sp), E Romero (Arg). 67 J Van de Velde (Fr), J Bickerton. 68 K Eriksson (Swe), K Tomori (Japan), D Robertson. 69 D Smyth, M Florioli (It), G Nicklaus (US), R Claydon, M Goggin (Aus), R Boxall. 70 D Cole (Aus), S Kjeldsen (Den), S Field, S Bottomley, G Hutcheon, R Drummond, S Webster, D Carter, R Goosen (SA), M Farry (Fr), O Edmond (Fr), G J Brand, H P Thuel (Ger), A Cejka (Ger), M Campbell (NZ), F Howley, W Riley (Aus), D Howell, R Allenby (Aus). 71 F Tarnaud (Fr), B Langer (Ger), V Phillips, A Hunter, S Delagrange, J Hawksworth, O Eliasson (Swe), P Mitchell, P McGinley, R Sailer (Aut), C Hainline (US). 72 E Canonica (It), G Evans, I Giner (Sp), S Struver (Ger), A Sandywell, M A Jimenez (Sp), G Turner (NZ), J Rystrom (Swe), N Joakimides (Fr), P Walton, D Higgins, C Cevaer (Fr), A Clapp, A Balicki (Fr), S Tinning (Den), P Golding, B Lane, J Spence, D Borrego (Sp), D A Russell, A Kankkonen (Fin).

OSMANLI BANKASI TURKISH OPEN (Klassis, Istanbul) Leading second-round scores (GB or Irl unless stated): 134 N Rorbaek (Nor) 67 67; S McAllister 65 69; A Butterfield 65 69. 135 R Winchester 69 66; J Wright 70 65; S Hansen (Den) 67 68; F Valera (Sp) 67 68. 136 J Robinson 67 69; P Hughes (Fin) 73 63; B Telleria (Fr) 72 64; M Litton 69 67; H Bjornstadt (Nor) 66 70.

MIZUNO OPEN (Kasaoka, Japan) Leading first-round scores (Japan unless stated): 64 H Inoue. 65 T Watanabe. 66 T Hiraishi. 67 B Jobe (US), F Minoza (Phil), A Gilligan (Aus), K Miyamoto, Y Mizumaki, K Hosokawa, K Maita, M Kuramoto, Y Yamamoto