OMAHA, Neb. -- Its never been so crowded at the top of the U.S. Senior Open leaderboard. When Tom Lehman chipped in from 45 feet on the 18th hole Thursday, he joined six others at 3-under 67 for the first round at the Omaha Country Club. There had never been as many as seven co-leaders after the opening round of the event. The previous record was five in 1997. "In one round, 18 holes, its like a sprint," Lehman said. "Over the course of four rounds, which is more like a marathon, things really do spread out. The field will thin out." Kenny Perry shot a 67 in the morning, putting together a solid start in his bid for a second straight win in a senior major. Michael Allen and Jay Don Blake also were 3 under after their morning rounds, and Gary Hallberg, Mark OMeara, Fred Funk and Lehman came in with the same score in the afternoon. The hilly 6,700-yard course took a toll on the field of golfers age 50 and older, especially in the afternoon as temperatures reached the upper 80s with a light breeze. The small and undulating greens browned up in the heat and proved dicey. "When you get tough conditions and youre playing good, you get rewarded," Funk said. "More than likely, the guy thats playing the best in these kind of conditions will be at the top. Hopefully, it will be me." Perry, who won the Senior Players Championship two weeks ago at Fox Chapel, Pa., made five birdies against two bogeys. The season points leader started on the back nine and had birdies on three of his first eight holes. He hit an 8-iron to within 10 feet on the par-3 11th, drove the green on the 312-yard, par-4 13th, and hit hybrid-pitching wedge on the 319-yard, par-4 17th and made his 15-foot putt. He birdied both par-5s on his second nine, but came away a bit disappointed after missing a 5-foot eagle putt on No. 6. "I took care of the par 5s today and drove it nicely, kept it in the fairway, kept it in play," Perry said. "Like I said yesterday, if I hit it in the fairway, I really like my chances on this golf course." Lehman, the 2012 Champions Tour points and money leader, overcame a bogey on No. 8 with three birdies on the back nine -- none bigger than the one on 18. His second shot came to rest in thick grass to the right of the green. He used an 8-iron for his chip and watched it roll downhill slowly into the cup for what ranked as the shot of the day. "The lie was a little bit squirrely," Lehman said. "The grass was growing against the ball so its easy to kind of not catch it cleanly. I took less loft and kind of hit it a little bit thin. Once it gets out on the green, its going to get down there." Chien Soon Lu, Peter Senior, Rocco Mediate and 2010 champion Bernhard Langer shots 68s. Colin Montgomerie, who turned 50 last month and is playing in his second senior event, was in a pack that was two shots behind. Defending champion Roger Chapman struggled with his putter and was seven shots behind after a 74. Tom Watson, who played with Langer and Montgomerie and drew the largest galleries of the day, struggled with his irons while shooting a 70 that included one birdie and one bogey. "I hit a few good shots today, but for the most part, my shots werent very solid," Watson said. "One good thing about it was that I got about the best score I possibly could out of my round." Fred Couples, coming off three straight runner-up finishes on the Champions Tour, had a 1-over 71. Couples, like others, had difficulty figuring out the speed of the greens. The recent heat wave has put stress on them, and warmer temperatures are forecast this weekend. "Theyre suffering," Lehman said. "And theres differing kinds of grass. Thats probably the biggest thing. Its not 100 per cent pure. So the heat affects them each differently, which is why you see that spotty stuff. That kind of makes the putts really not quite as true as you would hope for." Landry Jones Jersey . -- About a third of the way through the regular season, the Washington Wizards are at . Steelers Jerseys China . Jon Montgomerys gold medal in skeleton at the Whistler Sliding Centre and his subsequent auctioning off of a pitcher of beer in the village square elevated him to folk-hero status. http://www.cheapsteelersjerseysauthentic.com/ .ca! Hi Kerry, Its another day and here we are looking at another dubious hit to the head. In this case Blue Jackets forward Brandon Dubinsky elbowed Saku Koivu in the head about a second after he dished off the puck to a teammate, knocking him unconscious. Robert Golden Jersey . Fernandez, coached in Toronto by former two-time Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser, scored 267.11 points and is the first champion to successfully defend since Russias Evgeny Plushenko in 2005 and 2006. Ramon Foster Jersey . Robinson finished with 17 points, all but two in the second half, and Lawson had 14 after halftime and finished with a game-high 11 assists as the Nuggets handed Dallas its first home loss in eight games this season. J.J. Hickson led Denver with 22, and Kenneth Faried added 10 points and 10 rebounds.Mercedes admit they will be working overtime on Monacos rest day in a bid to catch Red Bull after being caught by surprise by Daniel Ricciardos blistering pace in Thursday practice. Ricciardo, buoyed by the introduction of Renaults new engine and reenergised by the appointment of Max Verstappen, topped the timesheets by over half a second from Lewis Hamilton with Nico Rosberg a further three tenths adrift.While Hamilton welcomed the prospect of a close fight, Rosberg admitted that Red Bulls speed had surprised the world champions. Its very simple: today they were faster than us, conceded the championship leader. We can still turn up our engine, but we dont have six tenths [worth] of turning up the engine. We expected them to be there or thereabouts, but not that quick.Sky F1 pundits dazzled by Red Bulls Monaco paceWhile the abnormal size of Ricciardos advantage suggests that Red Bull and Mercedes were running different fuel strategies, Ricciardos lap, faster than last years pole position time, will have the world champions working around the clock on Friday despite the absence of any on-track action. Ted Kravitz and Johnnny Herbert analyse how Lewis Hamiltons nose got broken in the Mercedes garage during Thursday practice at Monaco We need to spend the day wisely, said Rosberg. Friday is going to be an intense engineering day, much more intense than a usual weekend. Red Bull were quicker than us today [Thursday], we need to do our homework well tonight and tomorrow. In the situation we are finding ourselves in, its great to have an extra day, it gives us time to dig through everything and find more performance.If an answer to counter Red Bulls sudden surge is to be found, it is likely to be discovered in the detail of how the new ultrasoft tyres, debuting this weekend, perform. Unlike Red Bull and Ferrari, Mercedes declined to experience the new range of Pirellis during winter testing but have selected 10 sets of ultrasofts this week in anticipation of a one-stop race where the final stint will be run on supersofts.But with overtaking notoriously difficult around Monte Carlos mean streets, track position is expected to be nine-tenths of the Monaco GP law - making Saturdays qualifying hour the most important of the year so far. A feast of live sporting action is on Sky Sports this weekend - dont miss it! All our focus is on that one qualy lap because thats all that counts around here.dddddddddddd Its all building up to that one qualifying lap in Q3, said Rosberg. Its an exciting challenge to see if we can extract a bit more from these tyres. We have so much information on the tyres with sensors here, there and everywhere so that we can capture an accurate picture of what the tyres are actually doing. We have a huge data gathering and that is where Qualcomm come in.The technology giants have developed pioneering data processing that enables the team to download tyre telemetry even before their cars have returned to base via an advanced wifi connection that is eight times faster than the standard household wireless system.The faster you make that process, the faster you find new directions, added Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe. In the past, to get a download you would typically have to delay your car which you dont want to do in a practice session. We may only have five or six unique runs during a practice session and this means we can make every one count.After the unsettling surprise of Red Bulls blistering pace on Thursday, Mercedes know they have no time to lose on or off the track before the action resumes on Saturday.When is the Monaco GP on Sky Sports and how can you watch it? Meanwhile, the British-based Mercedes and McLaren outfits have confirmed they will adopt a position of neutrality ahead of the United Kingdom referendum vote on EU membership.One of our directors looked at the issue because some of our staff members asked which way they should vote, revealed Paddy Lowe. He concluded it didnt really make a lot of difference, either to the company or to Formula 1 in general in terms of how we run the business. So weve left it to our employees to vote how they wish personally.McLaren team boss Eric Boullier revealed the Brackley-based outfit had carried out a similar study and reached the same conclusion.We dont believe there will be a significant impact on the Formula 1 business, said Boullier. The team and the industry is mainly based in the UK but we have managed always to use some suppliers abroad and I dont think its going to change much.Watch the Monaco GP live on Sky Sports F1. The race starts at 1pm on Sunday, with build-up underway at 11.30am. 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