following a terrific opening round at Belmont yesterday.

After finishing second from the bottom last year, Walter Lowell and his team of Paul White, Ralph Bushnell and Joe Hamernik shot a net 55 (65 gross) over the par-70 course and find themselves in an unusual position looking down at the rest of the field.

"I've been coming down here for 24 years and today is the first time I can say I enjoyed the way we played,'' said club pro Lowell. "It seemed that every time we needed a shot someone stepped up and got it.

"Who knows why, but we actually managed to make some shots and hung in there.

"I bought Joe a new driver and he was just hitting it like he knew what he was doing.'' The foursome blistered around the front nine, posting an eight-under 26 and continued on the back side gaining a further seven strokes. They lead local club Castle Harbour by one stroke.

"We were fortunate today and I hope we can keep it up for the next few days,'' said Lowell, who was forced to abandon the final round last year to return to the US. "I told them this (Belmont) is a hard course and now we have the easy ones coming up.'' On the contrary Belmont is regarded as the least challenging of the four courses being used for the tournament and Canton today are set to tackle a much tougher course at Mid Ocean where Overbrook Golf Club were yesterday's low net scorers with a 60.

Also at Belmont, Castle Harbour were similarly impressive, carding a net 56 as well as a 65 gross, good for third place in that category.

Their pro Kevin Benevides heaped praise on his amateur team-mates for a fine display and said that they will be shooting for a 61 or 62 at Mid Ocean today.

"Those three guys (Victor Mello, Fritz Reiter and Danny Fagundo) did an excellent job out there today,'' said Benevides. "They were sinking a lot of three and four-footers for par, which computed into net birdies.'' "Every putt we needed to make we made. And I guess the main thing was that we had fun out there and did not put too much pressure on ourselves.'' Third place sees five teams locked on 58 -- all of whom recorded their scores at Belmont -- and includes defending champions Chateau Elan.

Mike Bishop has replaced Tim Conley as the club pro and is joined by John Harm, Mike Brisbois and Junior DeSilva.

PUT IT THERE -- Chateau Elan pro Mike Bishop, left, congratulates team-mate Junior DeSilva after he made a long putt yesterday.