Love 2 shots back after 63 in Greenbrier
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Davis Love III can still get some solid work done in a PGA Tour event.
Love, who is heading into the World Golf Hall of Fame in September, shot a 7-under-par 63 on Thursday in The Greenbrier Classic, leaving him two strokes behind first-round leader Sebastian Munoz.
Love, 53, is looking for his first win since the 2015 Wyndham Championship, which made him the thirdoldest winner in PGA Tour history. He would be the oldest if he wins this week in West Virginia.
Slowed this year by a bad back and a broken collarbone suffered in a January snowboarding accident in Sun Valley, Idaho, Love took advantage of a course softened by overnight rain for his best round of the season. He birdied four of his first five holes in the morning round on Old White, the course that was reconstructed after deadly floods forced the cancellation of last year’s tournament.
His son — Davis Love IV — also is in the field. He shot 74. The elder Love served as his son’s caddie in the U.S. Open last month.
Munoz, a 24-year-old Colombian, was boosted by five birdies on the back nine for a 61.
Defending champion Danny Lee was at 64 along with David Lingmerth, Ben Martin, rookie Xander Schauffele, and Canadians Graham DeLaet and Nick Taylor.
It took a full year after the June 2016 floods that killed 23 statewide to get Old White back to playing conditions. In other golf news: • Jon Rahm of Spain upstaged tournament host Rory McIlroy at the Irish Open by shooting a 7-under 65 and is one stroke off the first-round lead. Rahm had six birdies and an eagle and was tied for third place with Englishmen Matthew Southgate and Oliver Fisher. Dan-iel Im of the United States, ranked No. 542, and Benjamin Hebert of France, ranked No. 254, lead after shooting bogeyfree 64s. McIlroy shot an even-par 72.
• Belgian rookie Laura Gonzalez Escallon birdied three of the final four holes for a 7-under 65 and a share of the lead with Sei Young Kim in the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic at Oneida, Wis.