Jones ties course record with 61 at Honda Classic
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Matt Jones tied the course record at PGA National with a bogey-free 9-under 61 on Thursday, giving him a three-shot lead after the opening round. He matched the mark set by Brian Harman in the second round of the 2012 Honda, and was one shot better than the final-round 62 that Tiger Woods posted that same year.
“That’s an incredible round of golf,” said Lee Westwood, who opened with an even-par 70. “Could be the round of the year, 61 around here, when it’s flat calm, impressive. But when there’s a 15-, 20-mile-an-hour wind blowing, greens are fast, a lot of crosswinds, that’s an incredible round of golf.”
All told, there have been roughly 6,000 tournament rounds at the Honda since it moved to PGA National in 2007. None was better than the one Thursday from Jones, an Australian ranked No. 83 in the world.
“I play golf for a living,” Jones said. “I mean, I should be able to shoot a good golf score occasionally. It doesn’t happen as much as I want. But yes, I’m very happy with it. I was very calm, I was very relaxed out there. I’m normally a bit more amped-up and hyped-up and I had a different goal this week, to be a little more calm than normally and walk slower.”
Russell Henley and Aaron Wise were each 6 under after their opening rounds, those 64s matching the best score at the Honda by anyone — Jones excluded — since Rory McIlroy and Russell
Knox each had 63s in 2014. Nobody in the field last year shot better than a 66.
Texas outfielder Todd out for year
Texas redshirt senior outfielder Austin Todd is scheduled to undergo surgery to repair a torn labrum and will miss the remainder of the 2021 season, the team announced.
The procedure will be performed by MLB orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Meister of TMI Sports Medicine in Arlington.
Todd was hitting .292 with seven hits in six games, all starts, this season. Last year Todd hit a team-best .375 with a .430 on-base percentage. In other news:
• Texas A&M had its 11-game win streak snapped in a 13-4 loss to No. 5 Florida to open SEC play at Gainesville, Fla.
Dustin Saenz (3-2) was saddled with the loss for the Aggies, allowing five runs on eight hits while striking out three in three innings.
Ty Coleman and Austin Bost led Texas A&M (15-5, 0-1 SEC) at the plate. Coleman was 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI. Bost was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL Iowa State hires Otzelberger
T.J. Otzelberger is returning to Iowa State as head coach after two years at UNLV, athletic director Jamie Pollard announced.
This will be the 43-yearold Otzelberger’s third stint in Ames, his first as head coach. He was an assistant under Greg McDermott, Fred Hoiberg and Steve Prohm, who was fired Tuesday after a 2-22 season in which the Cyclones went winless in the Big 12.
U.S. men edge Costa Rica 1-0
Jesus Ferreira scored in the 35th minute and the United States opened its bid to reach the Olympic men’s soccer tournament after a pair of misses by beating Costa Rica 1-0 at Guadalajara, Mexico.
“It wasn’t great,” U.S. coach Jason Kreis said. “It was an important result for us, but I would say that we would have hoped to have gotten that result in a little bit of a better fashion. I think we would have hoped that we could have been better on the ball and made better decisions and maintained the tempo of the game better.”
In the second game, host Mexico beat the Dominican Republic 4-1.