Golf Roundup : Archer Has 29 on Front Nine at Pebble Beach

George Archer shot a 29 on the front nine of the Pebble Beach Golf Links Thursday and finished with a seven-under-par 65, a score later matched by Dan Forsman and Andy North in the first round of the $200,000 Spalding Invitational tournament.

Forsman also played Pebble Beach, the toughest of the three courses used in the non-tour event, while North played the par-71 Carmel Valley Golf and Country Club course.

“That 29 is awesome,” North said of Archer’s nine-hole score, believed to be a Pebble Beach record.

Archer, 46, birdied the first five holes with putts ranging from 18 to 4 feet. He settled for a par on the sixth, then birdied the seventh with a three-foot putt.

“I missed a five-foot putt at the sixth or I would have had seven birds in a row,” said Archer, who also birdied the eighth and 13th holes and took his only bogey at No. 14.

Don Bies, 48, was one stroke behind after a 66 on the Del Monte course.

Ron Cerrudo shot a 67 at Del Monte. A group at 68 included Juli Inkster and Patty Sheehan, two of the eight women pros in the field.

Bob Lohr scored an eagle-2 on his way to a 64 and the first-round lead in the $300,000 Bahamas tournament, a new event that serves as the unofficial start to the 1986 PGA Tour.

Lohr, 25, who won $93,651 as a rookie last season, holed out a 141-yard 8-iron shot from the rough on No. 11.

His eight-under-par effort matched the course record for the 6,976-yard Paradise Island Golf Club.

Rookie Davis Love III had a pair of eagle-3s--on the first and sixth holes--and shot a 65.