Day out to end drought, in hunt at BMW

Jason Day made his first hole in one in nine years, shot a six-underpar 65 on Friday and goes into the weekend at the BMW Championship with a chance to end 16 months without a victory.

Day, who began the year at No. 1 in the world but gave up the top ranking to Dustin Johnson within two months and has slipped all the way to No. 9, is in the final group with fellow Australian Marc Leishman, who shot a 64 and had a three-shot lead over Day and Rickie Fowler at Lake Forest, Ill.

“The last two days, I know I still have it in myself to be able to hit the correct shots and go out there and try and win,” Day said.

It helps being on a course where two years ago, Day opened with a 61 and went wire-to-wire for a six-shot victory that took him to No. 1 for the first time. He already has three eagles this week, two of them Friday. He chipped in from the back of the green on the par-five 14th, and then made his hole in one on No. 17 from 186 yards to a right pin with a seven-iron.

Day still feels far from 2015, when he won the PGA Championship and two FedEx Cup playoff events. In 2016 he won his second World Golf Championship, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship.

“It’s more of a grind,” he said. “I need to make the Tour Championship — that’s my ultimate goal. When I was playing well, I didn’t need to worry about it.”

Johnson, the defending champ, struggled and was 16 shots behind.

Steve Flesch and Jerry Smith each shot seven-under 64 to share the first-round lead in the PGA Tour Champions’ Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship in Victoria, Canada. Charles Schwab Cup points leader Bernhard Langer was a stroke back along with John Daly, David Toms and Jerry Kelly.

Sung Hyun Park seized her second chance to play the first round at the Evian Championship in France, shooting an eight-under 63 to lead Moriya Jutanugarn by two shots — a 14-shot turnaround after Park started six over through five holes Thursday before rain halted play and all scores were wiped. Katherine Kirk and Anna Nordqvist are tied for third, three shots back. American Jessica Korda is tied for fifth, four back.