Honolulu's Tadd Fujikawa fired a 7-under-par 65 to share the lead after yesterday's opening round of the eGolf Tour's Golf in Morocco Classic. Fujikawa had seven birdies and no bogeys on the Columbia Country Club Course in Blythewood, S.C.

He is tied for first with Aaron Goldberg, who fired a 64 on the par-71 Cobblestone Park Course.

The field will be split among the two courses again for today's second round before being cut to the low 70 players and ties for the final two rounds, which will be at Columbia.

After Saturday's finish, the top eight on the Tour's money list will be awarded exemptions into the European Challenge Tour's Moroccan Golf Classic.

Fujikawa, 19, finished fifth in last week's eGolf stop and is 12th on the money list after three events. Goldberg was a Monday qualifier at this year's Sony Open in Hawai'i.

Ryan Perez, another Moanalua High School graduate and former University of Hawai'i player, made his eGolf debut yesterday. The 2004 Mānoa Cup champion shot a 2-over 73 at Cobblestone. Perez is tied for 125th in a field of 201.

Perez also plans to play the eGolf Tour regularly. Pierre-Henri Soero, another former Rainbow, will split time on eGolf and another mini-tour.

TIGER TO MEET PRESS

Tiger Woods will speak before he plays in the Masters.

Woods is scheduled to hold his first press conference in nearly five months at 8 a.m. (HST) on Monday, April 5, according to a tentative interview schedule that Augusta National released yesterday.

It will be his first press conference in nearly five months, and his first time facing a room full of reporters since he crashed his SUV into a tree on Nov. 27, setting off shocking revelations of rampant infidelity.

LPGA ENDS BREAK

It's almost Easter, and the LPGA Tour is finally getting around to holding its first tournament in the United States.

The tour began with stops in Thailand and Singapore, took a break of nearly a month and will resume with the inaugural Kia Classic at La Costa in Carlsbad, Calif., starting today.

The first regular-season LPGA stop in the San Diego area since 1993 will feature a field worthy of a major. It includes the top 10 players in the rankings, led by No. 1 Lorena Ochoa.

No. 3 Ai Miyazato of Japan, who won the first two official events of the year, and No. 9 Michelle Wie, a Punahou alum and current Stanford student, are also entered.