SELANGOR, Malaysia (AP) — Australia’s Robert Allenby shot an 8-under 63 on Thursday to take a one-stroke lead over Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas after the first round of the Asia Pacific Classic, the second-year event sanctioned by the PGA Tour and Asian Tour.

Allenby birdied four of the first six holes and three of the last four in his bogey-free round at The Mines Resort and Golf Club.

“I got away with a nice par on the 18th. I made lots of nice putts and hit the ball really well all day,” Allenby said. “I had just one wayward tee shot at the last, but I made a good par to save at the last.”

Winless since the 2009 Australian Masters, Allenby was a captain’s pick for the upcoming Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne – the 40-year-old Australian’s home course.

“I’ve been playing well for a while, but I just haven’t really put the scores on the board,” Allenby said. “I’ve been making a lot of birdies, but a few others have been slipping in there. So to have a bogey-free round and to shoot 8 under around here is a great score.”

He won his first pro title in Malaysia in the 1992 Perak Masters.

Vegas birdied the final four holes.

“I had a really good round and hit the ball well,” said Vegas, the PGA Tour rookie who won the Bob Hope Classic in January. “I felt like I hit a lot of good putts as well. Hopefully, I can keep the momentum going for the next three days.”

Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson opened with a 65, and Americans Bo Van Pelt, Cameron Tringale and Jimmy Walker were another stroke back.

“I hit a perfect bunker shot,” said Jacobson, the Travelers Championship winner this summer for his first PGA Tour title. “That was a bit of a nice one to get. It was 25 yards, with the bunker a little left of the green. If I could have upped-and-downed it from there I would have been really happy.”

Mark Wilson, Stewart Cink, Jeff Overton, Scott Stallings and John Senden were four strokes back at 67.

Defending champion Ben Crane shot a 69.

The winner will receive $1.3 million from the $6.1 million purse.

Every week of the 2011 PGA Tour season, the editorial staff of the SI Golf Group will conduct an e-mail roundtable. Check in on Mondays for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors and join the conversation in the comments section below.

SHOULD FRED COUPLES HAVE SELECTED HIMSELF FOR THE PRESIDENTS CUP TEAM?
Michael Bamberger, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Let’s start with Fred Couples. He won the Champions Tour event in San Antonio this week by seven strokes . Honest-to-God, if they changed the rules and you could do it, would you fire Tiger from the team and make Fred your playing captain? I would in a heartbeat! I trust Jay Haas more with the lineup card anyhow, and I think Fred brings more game and comes with no baggage. How cool would that be?

Cameron Morfit, senior writer, Golf Magazine: I’d agree, except I think there’s a big difference between the oldies tour and the PGA Tour. Could FC shine at Royal Melbourne? Maybe, but I’d still pick Tiger.

Jim Gorant, senior editor, Sports Illustrated: Thanks, but no thanks. Great guy, great player but history of coming up small when the pressure is on–although he’s done his share in the team events. Not much pressure in San Antonio.

Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Fred: Very cool. There’s nobody I’d rather watch swing the club. Ever.

Herre: Interesting scenario, for sure, but a pipe dream. The fix was in for Woods from the get-go.

Gorant: Couples has always been great in the team events, but the Champions Tour is more like a Wednesday pro-am. I’ll pass.

Morfit: I think Tiger just needs to play tournaments, and he knows it. If he doesn’t, than all this work with Foley won’t amount to anything.

Damon Hack, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Love Fred, but he’s had his day.

Morfit: What if they had Ryder and Prez Cups for old guys? Might not even be safe. Better bring the defib paddles!

Jim Herre, managing editor, SI Golf Group: There’d be a whole lot of yippin’ going on.

Jeff Ritter, senior producer, Golf.com: I’ll give you this, Michael: if Freddy was somehow allowed to dump Tiger and put himself on the Prez Cup team, it would be the biggest golf story of the year — even bigger than “Hot Dog Guy.”

Rick Lipsey, writer-reporter, Sports Illustrated: As good as it looks, nothing on the Champions Tour carries over to the PGA Tour. Totally different worlds, mindsets, etc. Winning 10 times as a senior is no hint to how somebody will do on the big tour.

Morfit: Michael, your man DL3 is going to make a killing on that tour. Might be a good time to dust off your caddie skills and try and get that bag by any means necessary.

Bamberger: This whole question of Fred picking Tiger is not going away. Greg Norman, the International team’s captain, told a Florida newspaper the other day, “I can understand the name of a Tiger Woods and his history of what he’s done on the golf course,” Norman said. “But I pick the guys who I think are ready to get in there and play and have performed to the highest levels leading up to it.” This whole debate is one of the best things to ever happen to the Presidents Cup, don’t you think? I’ve never cared so much!

Mark Godich, senior editor, Sports Illustrated: The Shark is trying to get into Tiger’s head. Whatever happened to these things being friendly competitions? But it gives everyone one more reason to watch.

Morfit: When I interviewed Greg for Golf Magazine I sense that he was frustrated Tiger wasn’t reaching out to the right people, like people who’ve actually been No. 1 and in the public eye. Like Greg, in other words.

Herre: Of course Norman is right. Woods would never have been a captain’s pick if this was the Ryder Cup. I’ve always enjoyed the Presidents Cup, and think it really came of age in 2003 in South Africa, but putting Woods on the team for obvious commercial reasons is a travesty and a setback for the event.

Shipnuck: The best thing to happen to this Prez Cup is Norman’s yapping. It guarantees Tiger will come to play.

Lipsey: Tiger’s scenario is the only thing to make anybody give a hoot about a Presidents Cup on the other side of the world.

Bamberger: Oh, no, Rick–don’t agree. I’ve never been to Australia but I have to think Greg Norman captaining a team with Adam Scott–and Steve Williams!–will be a really big deal Down Under and in various Asian countries. What do you think, folks, are you feeling more P-Cup fever this time?

Lipsey: I’m talking stateside interest, and let’s face it, the majority of the golf TV audience is in the U.S.

Godich: I’ve got to admit that the time difference makes it tough.

Gorant: Well, I’d say that the majority of the U.S. TV audience is in the U.S. Lots of people in Australia, and they love sports. Then add in all the Asian countries….

John Garrity, contributing writer, Sports Illustrated: I like it BETTER when the World is the home team. The best P-Cup was the tie in South Africa, and the crowds were definitely into it when the Ints beat us Down Under.

Lipsey: Winning cures everything in sports. If, and it’s a big IF, Woods plays well, it’s the choice of the century.

Godich: No, it won’t be. We’re not going to learn a heck of a lot about the state of Tiger’s game based on what he does in an exhibition.

Lipsey: But Fred will look great because the world will see pix and hear stories about Tiger’s great play.

Bamberger: Well, I do feel it could be a big help to Tiger is he plays well, just as it was to Adam Scott two years ago. That’s part of what I object to here: it’s all good for Tiger, but what about the team?

Gary Van Sickle, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: You’re right about one thing: Absolutely no one was talking about the President’s Cup until Fred announced that the struggling Tiger was a lock. From a public relations standpoint, it was a slam dunk. Do you want the Prez Cup to be like the All-Star Game? The starting lineup is who the fans want, not necessarily the best players. As captain, I’d pick the hot hands, as Norman did. On the other hand, what happens if Tiger plays lousy and the U.S. loses? I’ll tell you what happens–nothing. We move on.

Have a question for Gary Van Sickle’s mailbag? E-mail editor@golf.com or ask it on Facebook.

Bamberger: Well, I think you’re all correct about Fred. A 62 on the Champions Tour, short course, easy hole locations, is maybe a 67 or something on the regular tour. But the point is, he can still really play. By that I mean, when he’s playing well he’s a true force. Playing partner golf and team golf would only make things easier for him. If Fred played a full (for him) regular Tour schedule, do you think he could win? I say he could. I think he’s as good now as he was five years ago, and probably putts better. He’s really a strangely unique figure in the game, just because of his high, high skill level and how little it yielded.

Godich: “When he’s playing well, he’s a true force.” You could say that about a lot of guys.

Herre: The thing is, Michael, Couples’s back has been in and out for 20 years. I don’t think he’d last long if he had to play a 7,500-yard course every week.

Hack: A full PGA Tour schedule for Fred would yield a few exciting weeks. Contention in L.A. and Houston, a round or two of intrigue at Augusta. I just don’t think the putter will allow for much more.

Garrity: But that’s what’s so intriguing about Couples, Damon. He’s a better putter now than he was a decade ago, when he was very “jabby” on the greens. Maybe it’s the slower greens, but I don’t close my eyes anymore when he’s bent over a 4-footer.

Morfit: A full PGA Tour schedule for Fred would yield a few exciting weeks. Contention in L.A. and Houston, a round or two of intrigue at Augusta. I just don’t think the putter will allow for much more. If they held every tournament at Riviera and or Augusta, he’d be in business. Which reminds me, I got dibs on Fred for Masters pool.

Van Sickle: I think we’ve already seen that Fred can’t putt quite well enough to win on the PGA Tour anymore. Maybe he could catch lightning in a bottle one week. I’d love to see it but I don’t think he can keep his back healthy enough to practice long enough to get his game sharp enough again to win on the big tour.

Tell us what you think: If the rules allowed for the late switch, who would you rather see playing on the U.S. Presidents Cup team: Tiger or Freddy?

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Webb Simpson has earned $5.77 million on the PGA Tour this season, and yet he will tee it up at the McGladrey Classic in Sea Island, Ga., in hopes of finishing the year atop the money list. He is just under $69,000 behind Luke Donald, who would be the first player to win the money title on both sides of the Atlantic. (Donald leads the European Tour money list by a comfortable margin.)

Should Simpson pull ahead, Donald could elect to play Disney next week, which would mean Simpson would have to play it, which would make the Disney less for Charles Howell III fans than Thurston Howell III fans.

At the other end of the money list is Paul Casey, who played well for most of last week’s Frys.com Open before fading to a T7 finish. Casey, whose summer was a casualty of a mysterious foot injury, rose from 135th to 127th on the money list at CordeValle, and has more work to do at Sea Island to crack the top 125.

“It’s not perfect,” Casey said of his right foot after shooting a second-round 64 at the Frys.com at CordeValle, “but now I can walk without limping and I feel like I’m — to be honest it’s probably the best I’ve hit the golf ball all year, and even though the toe isn’t 100 percent, it’s great news.”

Matt Jones, the Australian who played at Arizona State, is 125th, while sometime Golf Channel broadcaster Steve Flesch is 126th. Andres Gonzales, the mutton-chopped, mulleted endomorph who calls himself “half man, half amazing,” and who keeps tweeting Tiger Woods to see if they can hook up for a practice round, is languishing at 213th in earnings. He could use a big week.

Among the most intriguing players at Sea Island will be Bud Cauley, the 21 -year-old who left Alabama after his junior year and turned pro in March, and Rickie Fowler, 22, who won for the first time as a pro in Korea last weekend.

Cauley has no status on the PGA Tour, but qualified for the U.S. Open at Congressional, where he finished in the back of the pack, and has made the most of his sponsor’s exemptions. He finished third at the Frys.com last weekend, which got him into the McGladrey, an event he’d planned to try to Monday-qualify for after a red-eye flight Sunday. “This is definitely a lot easier,” he said at CordeValle.

His $340,000 payday at CordeValle pushed the diminutive Cauley up to $671,150 in earnings after just seven starts, which would put him 114th on the money list. He will almost certainly earn his card for 2012, bypassing Q school and becoming just the sixth player to accomplish the feat, the first since Ryan Moore.

Fowler, who won the Korea Open by six strokes over Rory McIlroy, is perhaps America’s most exciting and marketable young golfer, which is no small thing given how fast Tiger Woods has fallen from grace. If the stylish Fowler can leverage that hard-won breakthrough into a string of Ws, golf may attract some attention even in the midst of the baseball playoffs and the NFL and college football seasons.

There isn’t much left on the 2011 calendar: two Fall Series events, the HSBC Champions (always a strong field), the Aussie Open, PGA and Masters, and the Presidents Cup — that’s about it. Oh, and if you count the Chevron Challenge as a real tournament, there’s that, too. Woods did the Chevron media day Tuesday, and said he was grateful to have barely qualified to play in the event he hosts.

“I had points rolling off from ’09,” Woods said, explaining how he’s fallen to 52nd in the World Ranking. “I had a very good year that year. I won, what, seven times around the world, so all those points are coming off. Unfortunately, I fell quite a bit, and I fell fast. Good news is, by playing next year, I have no points coming off — so I can start rebuilding.”

Seniors down to their last full-field tournament

The Champions Tour’s AT&T Championship at TPC San Antonio is the last chance for the 50-and-overs to climb into the top 30 on the money list and qualify for the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship at TPC Harding Park.

The good news for Tom Pernice Jr. was that he made the cut and finished T36 at the Frys.com Open last weekend. The bad news was he missed the Insperity Championship and fell from 27th to 30th on the senior money list. Brad Faxon, who got his first Champions victory at the Insperity, is 39th on the Schwab Cup points list.

The AT&T Canyons Course, designed by Pete Dye and Bruce Leitzke, is a new venue for the AT&T Championship. (Verizon and Sprint users are presumably still welcome.) This will be San Antonio’s 27th straight year as host city, the longest streak for any metropolitan area on the Champions tour, and TPC San Antonio, which also hosts the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open, becomes one of three golf facilities to host two PGA Tour-sanctioned events. The others: TPC Sawgrass, which hosts the Players and the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open, and Pebble Beach, home of the AT&T Pro-Am and the Nature Valley First Tee Open.

Short game: Jamie Lovemark, the Nationwide Tour’s player of the year last year, who had back surgery over the summer and hasn’t competed since the Shell Houston Open in May, will play the Nationwide’s Miccosukee Championship in Miami. Daniel Chopra is 25th on the Nationwide money list, with an $11,864 lead over Marco Dawson with two full-field events remaining. The top 25 make it to the PGA Tour next year. In his last three Nationwide starts, Miguel Carballo of Argentina lost in a playoff, tied for seventh, and last weekend won, climbing to fifth on the money list, up from 60th Sept. 18. Martin Kaymer will be the highest-ranked player (No. 6) at the Euro tour’s Portugal Masters at Oceanico Victoria Golf Course. Also in the field are Alvaro Quiros, who won the tournament in ’08, Thomas Bjorn, a three-time winner this year, and Padraig Harrington. Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer, Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr and Christina Kim are among those who will try to stop the juggernaut that is Yani Tseng at the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

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NORTH PLAINS, Ore. (AP) — Na Yeon Choi’s opening round at the LPGA Safeway Classic was made all the better by her best friend.

Choi had a 6-under 65 Friday to take a two-stroke lead over Grace Park going into Saturday’s second round at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club west of Portland.

Choi teed off in a threesome with fellow South Korean Song-Hee Kim, who has been her pal since she was 11. The two at times have shared a coach and trained together in Florida.

“I know she’s my best friend, I think we really know each other, so I was very comfortable to play with her,” Choi said.

Choi’s round was marked by a personal-best string of seven straight birdies, but it was marred by a double-bogey on the par-4 No. 18.

“I’d like to go back to the 18th hole, really,” she said.

Choi was helped by an early tee time on the club’s par-71 Ghost Creek course. Golfers who got later starts were hampered by breezy conditions.

Choi, winner of last season’s Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, was a runner-up when Ai Miyazato of Japan won last year’s Safeway Classic, besting Choi and Cristie Kerr by two shots.

Park, who has withdrawn or been cut in 38 of her last 67 tournaments, was two strokes back with a 67, while Se Ri Pak, Anna Nordqvist, M.J. Hur and Ashli Bunch shot 68s.

Park has been beset by injuries over the past six years, from her neck to her back to her hip. She had back surgery one year ago, and the year before that, hip surgery.

“In the past that was my excuse and that was the truth,” Park said. “But right now I’m healthy as I’ve been in 10 years. And yeah, knock on wood.”

Park has entered nine events this year, but she has not made the cut in six of them, including her last two, the Evian Masters and the Women’s British Open.

Park joked that her opening round was solid, not spectacular.

“Nothing fantastic, but it was kind of boring golf,” she said. “I hit a lot of fairways, lot of greens, lot of good putts.”

Miyazato is again in the 150-player field for the tournament’s 40th anniversary in the Portland area. So is world No. 1 Yani Tseng, who won this year’s British Open for her fifth career major.

Miyazato shot a 70 Friday and Tseng opened with a 72 in the 54-hole event that concludes Sunday.

Kerr, ranked third in the world, won the Safeway Classic in 2008 when it was still at Columbia Edgewater Country Club near Portland International Airport. She shot a 73 in the opening round.

Michele Redman, who in 2009 tied for second in the Safeway Classic, is playing her last Tour event this weekend before taking over as the women’s golf coach at the University of Minnesota. She had a 79.

Kim did not fare as well as her best friend Choi, shooting a 71.

The tournament, now the longest-running non-major LPGA event, was first played in 1972 at Portland Golf Club. Hall of Famer Kathy Whitworth won the first year.

The Tournament Golf Foundation, which puts on the Safeway Classic, on Friday honored Margaret Maves, who has volunteered at the tournament each year since its inception.