CHARLOTTE, North Carolina: American Bill Haas took advantage of familiar surroundings to fire a flawless eight-under-par 64 for a two-stroke lead after the first round of the Quail Hollow Championship Thursday. Haas putted brilliantly in posting four birdies on each side to lead former PGA Championship winner David Toms and Jonathan Byrd, who both registered 66s. Another shot back were former US Open champion Lucas Glover and Pat Perez. The 28-year-old Haas rescued par after an errant approach shot at 18 to maintain his bogey-free round. Toms and Byrd, unlike Haas, were among the early starters at Quail Hollow and had to deal with chilly temperatures and windy conditions that lengthened many of the holes at an already testing course that measures nearly 7,500 yards. Breaking the US monopoly at the top of the leaderboard were Australian Stuart Appleby, Sweden's Carl Pettersson and Vijay Singh of Fiji, all bunched at four-under 68 along with Americans Rickie Fowler and Jim Herman. Britain's Rory McIlroy struggled Thursday with a three-over-par 75. The Northern Irishman had five bogeys and just two birdies for the day. Aiken back on top South African Thomas Aiken mastered the Spanish Open winds Friday to fashion a one-shot lead with a four-under 68 in the second round. He shrugged off the difficulty of strong winds that spoiled many cards at the 7,296-yard Greg Norman-designed El Prat course near Barcelona because of his vast experience of playing in Europe, Aiken said. Larrazabal's 70 kept his dream alive of winning at his home course. He was a stroke better than British pair Scott Jamieson and Anthony Wall, Frenchman Romain Wattel and Spain's Alvaro Velasco. Two of the tournament favorites had mixed fortunes at the end of their rounds. Italian Matteo Manassero, 18, birdied three of the last four holes to make the cut on one-under 143 while holder Alvaro Quiros of Spain three-putted the last from four feet to miss out by one stroke. Kim takes lead In Seoul, Kim Kyung-tae moved into an ominous two-shot lead at the halfway stage of the GS Caltex Maekyung Open after last year's runner-up carded a second-round four-under-par 68 Friday on home soil. The 2007 champion followed up an opening-round 67 to move clear of Korean compatriots Kang Kyung-nam and Cho Min-gyu heading into the weekend of the $1 million OneAsia event at an overcast Namseoul Golf & Country Club in Seoul. Kang carded eight birdies to post an impressive 66 to sit a shot clear of overnight leader Kim Hui-soo and Australia's Stephen Allan.
