Frost Chilling in First Place

David Frost found himself in a familiar situation in an unfamiliar place Friday.

He finished the second round of the John Deere Classic, a tournament he won in 1992 and 1993, at the top of the leaderboard with a 15-under-par total of 127. But his previous wins were at the tournament’s old home course that was dropped this year in favor of the Tournament Players Club at Deere Run.

The former champion seems to be warming to the new layout at Silvis, Ill. He turned in a score of nine under in Friday’s round to take a three-shot lead over Tim Herron.

Herron shot a second consecutive 65 and was at 130. He began his round with a birdie and eagled the par-five second hole.

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Helen Alfredsson shut down mentally and it spurred her to a seven-under 65 and a share of the lead with Se Ri Pak after one round of the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic at Howland, Ohio.

“I don’t think, I’ve given up thinking,” Alfredsson said with a grin. “It hasn’t been doing me any good.”

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Defending champion Bruce Fleisher shot a nine-under 63 to break the course record he tied last year and take a one-stroke lead over Dana Quigley after one round of the Long Island Classic.

Fleisher won seven times as a rookie on the Senior PGA Tour last year and he already has successfully defended two of those titles. He has three wins this year.

He didn’t have a bogey Friday and finished with three straight birdies at Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, N.Y.

“The course didn’t have a lot of defense today because of the conditions,” Fleisher said, referring to the four inches of rain that fell on Long Island Wednesday and Thursday.

Quigley joined Fleisher and Jose Maria Canizares, who shot a 64 in the opening round in 1997, as course record-holders for about 20 minutes. Then Fleisher, playing two groups behind, closed out his 63.

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Two-time runner-up John Bland shot a four-under 67 to take a two-stroke lead over defending champion Christy O’Connor Jr. in the Senior British Open at Newcastle, Northern Ireland.

Bland recovered from a bogey at the third hole at the Royal County Down course by picking up birdies at the eighth, ninth, 12th, 15th and 16th holes to go to seven under for the tournament.

Notes

Greg Norman has recovered from hip surgery sooner than expected and will play in The International next week. He originally had planned to return for the PGA Championship, which starts Aug. 17. One who won’t be playing at Castle Rock, Colo., is Tiger Woods, who will skip the event because of a scheduling conflict. . . . For the first time in nearly 20 years, the LPGA Tour might have only three major championships on its schedule unless it can find a new title sponsor for the du Maurier Classic in Canada, Commissioner Ty Votaw said. In addition to the du Maurier, the other majors are the Nabisco Championship, LPGA Championship and U.S. Open.