Sandy Lyle the Scot who won the 1988 US Masters made his best start

Sandy Lyle, the Scot who won the 1988 US Masters, made his best start to a tournament for some time with a five-under-par 67 at the Doral Open in Miami yesterday Lyle was one of a group of five players on that score. Skip Kendall, playing in the last group of the day, had the best score of the first round, his seven-under-par 65 giving him a one-stroke lead over three players. On 66 were the three-times Doral winner, Greg Norman, Bob Tway and Lee Rinker. Kendall had eight birdies in the first 12 holes of Doral's Blue course "I didn't want to get ahead of myself," he said "I just wanted to stay focused and hit good shots. The TV cameras started coming out then, and I hit it in a few bunkers coming in." Kendall's only bogey came on the 16th hole, when he was caught in two different bunkers.Partly because scoring has been low in recent years, the course was reworked by Raymond Floyd last year, with new bunkers added and the final hole, the famed Blue Monster, back at its old level of difficulty.An unusual lack of wind yesterday produced scores that did not quite reflect the added problems. The field's scoring average was just below par at 71.96."One thing about the renovations is that Raymond never changed any of the lines off the tees.

I just hit the ball exactly the way I've done in all the years I've been coming here," Norman said."There wasn't one shot I was apprehensive on, because I knew exactly where the lines were and where the ball would go," Norman said after his bogey-free round.. India made an unflustered and solid response to the West Indies first innings 427, overcoming a few early alarms before the opener VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid frustrated the West Indies fast bowlers on a lifeless pitch. Laxman, a 24-year-old right hander from Hyderabad pushed into the difficult opening position for the first time in only his fifth test was 54 and Dravid, who first came to international attention in the series in England last summer was 28 in an unbeaten partnership of 76. The West Indies tried all four of their fast bowlers and their two occasional spinners, Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul but they made no impression after the opening overs when Laxman and his experienced partner Navjot Sidhu were fortunate to survive three narrow shaves before Ian Bishop trapped Sidhu leg-before.Earlier, Hooper had transformed his overnight 87 into his seventh Test 100 before losing concentration 10 minutes before lunch and lofting a catch to mid-off from the new fast bowler Abey Kuruvilla's well disguised slower delivery. Hooper's 129 took four hours 35 minutes and he collected 17 boundaries with his characteristic elegance. But he was not quite at his commanding best.India's established leg-spinner, Anil Kumble, wicketless for 21 overs on the opening day, removed five of the last six batsmen. Hooper was the only victim to fall at the opposite end.He had nightwatchman Ian Bishop caught at mid-off after he and Hooper had batted through the first hour and 25 minutes and then claimed Junior Murray lbw.After lunch Ambrose and the new fast bowler, the equally tall Franklyn Rose, delighted the small crowd with typically tail-end hitting but Kumble was not to be denied his eighth collection of five wickets in an innings.(Second day; West Indies won toss)WEST INDIES - First Innings(Overnight: 300 for 4)C L Hooper c Prasad b Kuruvilla 129I R Bishop c Joshi b Kumble 24R I C Holder not out 3J R Murray lbw b Kumble 1C E L Ambrose c Ganguly b Kumble 23F A Rose not out 14*C A Walsh b Kumble 4Extras (lb9, nb8) 17Total 427Fall (cont): 5-357, 6-368, 7-370, 8-408, 9-423.Bowling: Prasad 28-5-104-1; Kuruvilla 30-6-82-3; Kumble 42.4-5-120-5; Joshi 27-6-81-1; Ganguly 7-1-17-0;Laxman 3-0-14-0.INDIA - First InningsV V S Laxman not out 54N S Sidhu lbw b Bishop 10R S Dravid not out 28Extras (4b, 2lb, 10nb) 16Total (for 1) 108To fall: 1-32.To bat: *S R Tendulkar, S Ganguly, M Azharuddin, N R Mongia, A Kumble, S Joshi, A Kuruvilla, B K V Prasad.Bowling: Ambrose 9-3-13-0; Bishop 10-3-25-1; Rose 6-1-25-0; Walsh 6-0- 12-0; Hooper 6-2-22-0; Chanderpaul 4-2-7-0.Umpires: S Bucknor, M Kitchen..

Tony Pigott, the former Sussex and England pace bowler, yesterday pledged to maintain his campaign to oust the entire Sussex committee after the county had been thrown into further turmoil with the resignation of the chairman, Alan Caffyn. Pigott welcomed the resignation as a "step in the right direction", though Sussex have appointed their long-serving committee member, Ken Hopkins, as chairman in succession to Caffyn, whose seven-year reign came to an end after he pinned much of the blame for an exodus of players from Hove on the axing of Alan Wells, the former captain. Pigott, who served Sussex for 18 years, has forced a special general meeting on 8 April, when there will be a vote of no confidence in the committee He said: "I can confirm I would like to become chairman. The future of Sussex is at stake and new blood and new ideas are urgently needed. I would like to come in and restructure the club, with everything based on doing what is best for Sussex."n Brendon Julian, the Australian Test all-rounder, will be Surrey's overseas player this summer for the second season running He missed much of last year through injury..

The switchboard is flashing fit to catch fire Television crews trawl the corridors. No sooner has the driver delivering lager from the sponsors popped in to wish him luck than Brian Flynn is interrupted by a secretary asking about donating a ball for Red Nose Day "It's like Crewe station," sighs the Wrexham manager Correction: it is like a fire drill in a madhouse. The reason for the clamour is the Welsh club's FA Cup sixth-round match at Chesterfield tomorrow, a tie which guarantees that a team from the Second (nee Third) Division will feature in the semi-finals for the first time in 13 years. Now Wrexham have staged several great European nights and count Arsenal among numerous prestigious scalps, but they have never played at Wembley. Never mind lager, you could almost bottle the adrenalin coursing round the Racecourse Ground.The fact that Flynn and his confidants in the Wrexham "boot room", Joey Jones and Kevin Reeves, have seen it all before does not make them immune to the excitement. As players they won a total of 140 caps and commanded pounds 3m in transfer fees. Wrexham have neither the resources nor the support of the big-city clubs each once represented, so success on a national scale would probably be the most satisfying achievement of their lives.Although none of the "Racecourse Three" gained an FA Cup winner's medal, Reeves, the assistant manager, scored for Manchester City in their defeat by Tottenham in the 1981 final, while Jones, the coach, lost with Liverpool against Manchester United four years earlier.

Flynn, like Wrexham, is a stranger to the semi-finals yet not to the competition's capacity to inspire emotional extremes.Shortly after he broke into Burnley's midfield, in 1974, they contested a place in the last four with a Wrexham team which included Jones, a fellow teenager and colleague-to-be in the Welsh national side. Flynn watched from the stand as a "wicked deflection...off Arfon Griffiths I think" took the Lancashire club to an unsuccessful semi-final.The following year he made his Cup debut. Burnley were chasing the League championship and had home advantage; Wimbledon were Southern League part- timers. "They beat us 1-0 and our dressing-room was like a morgue afterwards," Flynn recalls. "There was a knock on the door and this gentleman from Wimbledon came in saying: "We'd like you to have these as a souvenir''."He gave us these Womble shampoos, based on the characters from the kids' TV show Zebedee was it? Anyway, it was a lovely gesture. Needless to say it didn't go down too well at the time.''Jones, meanwhile, moved to Anfield - after a fashion.