PRO GOLF roundup
THE COLONIAL
FORT WORTH, TEXAS
Masters champion Jordan Spieth made a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole with darkness falling for a 6-under 64 and a share of the first-round lead Thursday in the rain-delayed Colonial. Spieth just missed the green on his approach at the 18th hole, and putted from off the back right fringe. The closing birdie shortly after 8 p.m. put him atop the leaderboard with Kevin Na, Boo Weekley and Ryo Ishikawa. After missing the cut at The Players Championship two weeks ago, the 21-year-old Spieth is playing the first of consecutive weeks at home in North Texas. Spieth opened his bogey-free round with a 25-foot birdie putt at No. 1, then started the back nine with another a 22-footer at No. 10. He had a great chance for another birdie on the par-3 16th, but his 4-foot try slid by the hole. Na curled up in a corner of the locker room and took a nap when tee times for the morning groups like his were pushed back three hours after more than an inch of rain fell overnight at Hogan’s Alley. The afternoon groups started 2 hours, 40 minutes later than scheduled, but all 122 players managed to finish. George McNeill and Ian Poulter, who shared the lead before his only bogey at No. 18, were a shot back at 65. Defending champion Adam Scott had a 72.
BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
VIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND
Top-ranked Rory McIlroy shot a 1-under 71, leaving the defending champion six strokes behind leader Francesco Molinari in the BMW PGA Championship. Playing for the fourth straight week, McIlroy had four birdies and three bogeys on Wentworth’s West Course. He has won two of his last three events, taking the Match Play Championship in San Francisco on May 3 and the Wells Fargo Championship last week in North Carolina. Molinari opened with a 65. The Italian has three top-10 finishes in the last three years at the European Tour’s flagship event and tied for second last week in the Spanish Open. Sweden’s Robert Karlsson was second after a 67. Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez was at 68 along with countryman Jorge Campillo, England’s Chris Wood, South Korea’s Y.E. Yang and Scotland’s Marc Warren.
SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
FRENCH LICK, IND.
Massy Kuramoto had the only under-par round with a 1-under 71 to take the first-round lead in the Senior PGA Championship in cool, damp conditions on the testy Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort. The 59-year-old Kuramoto, a 30-time winner on the Japan Tour, is the chairman of the PGA of Japan and plays on the side, something he does well enough to have won the 2014 Japan Senior Open. Kuramoto had a one-stroke lead over defending champion Colin Montgomerie, Billy Andrade, Barry Lane, Jean Francois Remesy and Bart Bryant.
Associated Press