ON THE LINKS | Friday’s professional golf result

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

LAKE FOREST, ILL.

Marc Leishman has a short memory when it comes to golf, which only helped him at the BMW Championship. He forgot all about that 62 in the opening round. He was nearly just as good Friday with a 7-under 64 to open a three-shot lead over Jason Day and Rickie Fowler going into the weekend at Conway Farms. “I really took that as a challenge today, to not take it for granted that you’re just going to make birdies,” Leishman said. “You still have to earn every birdie. I think when you do get ahead of yourself, that’s when bad stuff can happen.” There was plenty of good stuff from the guys chasing him in the third FedEx Cup playoff event. Day, who has gone 16 months since his last victory, chipped in from behind the 14th green for his second eagle of the week, and then added a third eagle with one swing. He made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole with a 7-iron that turned into a payoff for multiple parties. It carried day to a 65, putting him in the last group on the weekend with Leishman. BMW awarded $100,000 to the Evans Scholars Foundation, and then Day decided to give the car he won to the Evans Scholars.

CHAMPIONS TOUR

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Steve Flesch and Jerry Smith each shot 7-under 64 to share the first-round lead in the PGA Tour Champions’ Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship. Flesh is making his 12th senior start after turning 50 in May. The four-time PGA Tour winner had four birdies in a five-hole stretch on Bear Mountain’s Mountain Course and capped the bogey-free round with a birdie on the par-5 18th. Smith also closed with a birdie and had six birdies in a seven-hole span before bogeying the par-3 14th. He has one senior title. Charles Schwab Cup points leader Bernhard Langer was a stroke back along with John Daly, David Toms and Jerry Kelly. Coming off a two-week break, the 60-year-old Langer won three of the tour’s five majors this season and is tied with Scott McCarron for tour victory lead with four. Daly won the Insperity Invitational in May in Texas for his first senior title, and Kelly took the Boeing Classic three weeks ago outside Seattle for his first tour victory. Canadian Stephen Ames topped the group at 66. Defending champion Colin Montgomerie opened with a 70. He won last week outside Tokyo in the 50-and-over tour’s first event in Japan. McCarron had a 71. He lost a playoff to Montgomerie last year at Bear Mountain, and tied for second last week in Japan after winning three of the previous six events. Nick Faldo shot 73.

Associated Press