Golf Roundup : Jacobsen Back in Swing, Ties for Lead

Peter Jacobsen, on the mend from major back problems, shot a 4-under-par 68 Thursday to tie John Mahaffey for the first-round lead in the $1-million Memorial Tournament at Dublin, Ohio.

Jacobsen said he’s rounding into form after a herniated disk affected his performance in 1987.

“I really have a great drive to come back and win again,” Jacobsen said. “I feel like I get a step closer every round I play.

“I feel like I’m back--but not all the way back. I haven’t won yet. Maybe this week. Maybe not.”

Jacobsen was 1-under par after a three-putt bogey on the 10th, but he sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the 11th and added birdies at 13 and 15.

Mahaffey had seven birdies--including four in a row at one stretch--on Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club course. The former PGA champion said he used a new set of irons and “hit the ball very solid.”

Tom Kite was the only man in the field without a bogey and had a 69, tying him with South African David Frost, Aki Ohmachi of Japan, Rocco Mediate, John Hallet and John Huston.

Another shot back at 70 were Clarence Rose, two-time Memorial champion Hale Irwin, Joey Sindelar, Andrew Magee, Steve Pate and D.A. Weibring.

Sherri Steinhauer and Patty Sheehan shot five-under-par 67s to share the first-round lead in a $325,000 LPGA tournament at Corning, N.Y.

Steinhauer birdied five holes at the par-72, 6,062-yard Corning Country Club. Sheehan, who won this tournament in 1983, scored an eagle-3 on the par 5, 456-yard second hole and birdied three other holes.