Leishman widens lead
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.
Leishman was nearly just as good yesterday with a 7-under 64 to open a 3-shot lead over Jason Day and Rickie Fowler going into the weekend at Conway Farms in Lake Forest, Ill.
“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 made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole with a 7-iron. It carried Day to a 65, putting him in the last group on the weekend with Leishman.
Fowler also chipped in for eagle on the par-4 15th hole on his way to a 64.
It hasn’t been easy for everyone, particularly defending champion Dustin Johnson. The world’s No. 1 finished bogey-bogey and shot a 72. He is 17 shots behind Leishman.
Jordan Spieth, No. 1 in the FedEx Cup after successive runner-up finishes in the playoffs, only managed a 70 and joined Phil Mickelson in the group at 135 . . . .
Sung Hyun Park took full advantage of a fresh start to the Evian Championship, firing an 8-under 63 to lead the rescheduled first round by 3 shots over Australia’s Katherine Kirk.
That meant a 14-shot turnaround for the No. 3-ranked Park, who had been 6-over in the rain and wind on Thursday. Play was abandoned and all scores wiped out, leaving the fifth women’s major in Evian-Les-Bains, France, as a 54-hole event . . . .
Steve Flesch and Jerry Smith each shot a 64 to share the first-round lead in the PGA Tour Champions’ Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship in Victoria, British Columbia.
NASCAR: Busch grabs pole
Kyle Busch opened his bid for a second NASCAR Cup championship with a lap of 187.963 mph to win the pole at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill.
Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin will start on the front row and fellow Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. was third. Truex has four wins and is considered the favorite to win his first career Cup title.
NASCAR playoff drivers Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson had the next three spots.
Top 10 spots for other drivers racing for the championship over the final 10 races include: Chase Elliott eighth, Austin Dillon ninth and Matt Kenseth 10th. Jamie McMurray has the worst starting spot among the 16 drivers in 19th.
Busch and Keselowski sniped at each other on Twitter before qualifying over Toyota’s supposed dominance heading into tomorrow’s race.
Names: Pelicans sign Allen
The New Orleans Pelicans signed free agent guard Tony Allen. The 6-foot-4 Allen provides back-court depth and brings a reputation for defense dating back to when he helped the Celtics win the 2008 NBA title. He has been named to the NBA alldefensive first team three times. Allen, 35, spent the past seven seasons with Memphis, mostly starting . . . .
The Colorado Avalanche signed restricted free agent defenseman Nikita Zadorov to a two-year deal. Zadorov led the Avs with 153 hits last year . . . .
Karolina Pliskova, who last week lost her No. 1 world tennis ranking, parted with coach David Kotyza, whom she hired in December.