Robert Allenby Leads Bob Hope Classic

Thursday, January 18th 2007, 6:24 am

By: News On 6

PALM DESERT, Calif. (AP) _ The leaderboard had Robert Allenby flirting with golf's magic number. It was wrong, an error by the volunteer keeping his unofficial score. Allenby's 9-under 63 on Wednesday still was good enough to give him a two-shot lead after the opening round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

The leaderboard initially had him finishing with a 60, which would have been one shot off the PGA Tour record, last done by David Duval in the 1999 Hope.

Mark Calcavecchia and Craig Kanada were tied for second at 65. Phil Mickelson made his 2007 debut with a 70, and defending champion Chad Campbell also had a 70.

Allenby, who kept his card correctly during the round, was able to chuckle about the scoring mixup. The unidentified volunteer apparently credited him with two eagles, while Allenby actually had nine birdies, no bogeys and no eagles.

``The scorekeeper was trying to be nice to me. Every time I made a birdie, he came up trying to shake my hand,'' Allenby said. ``He was a bit nervous, came up to me on the second hole and said, `Oh, I can't believe I'm scoring for you.'

``I'm like, `OK, settle down, no worries. Let's have a good time out here but let's not get too carried away.' And then obviously the Golf Channel thought I was trying to shoot 59 or 60, probably like everyone else. But I knew what was going on.''

That was just one part of an unusual round for Allenby. After the start was delayed anywhere from half an hour to an hour because of frost on each of the four courses used for the tournament, he began his round at La Quinta Country Club around 11 a.m., an hour later than scheduled.

Overnight temperatures dipped to 27 degrees and it was in the 30s when play was scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. as a record cold snap continued in Southern California.

Allenby began on the back nine of the 7,060-yard La Quinta layout, was 4-under by the turn, then made five more birdies.

His putter, which he had forgotten in his hotel room but had time to retrieve because of the frost delay, carried him.

Three of his birdies came from within 4 feet of the hole, but he made several 20-30 footers, including rolling in two from around 25 feet to birdie his final two holes.

``I took everything to the room last night and forgot to put the putter back into my bag,'' Allenby said. ``I came all the way out to the golf course and realized it wasn't there, so I sent my trainer back to get it.''

The 35-year-old Allenby is coming off an eighth place finish in Hawaii last weekend. A native of Melbourne, Australia, he first played on the tour in 1993. He won twice in both 2000 and 2001 and has earned more than $13.5 million in his career.

Mickelson, the Hope champion in 2002 and 2004, said his first round of the season was erratic.

``I hit a lot of great shots. I hit a lot of poor shots,'' he said. ``It was a good round of 2-under par. After being 3-over through four holes, to come back and shoot under par, I'll gladly take that.''