Jobe’s eagle propels him to Ally lead

Opens with 65 in PGA’s return to Warwick Hills

Brandt Jobe capped a fast start with an eagle in tour golf’s return to Warwick Hills in Grand Blanc, Mich., and shot a 7under 65 Friday to take the first-round lead in The Ally Challenge in this PGA Tour Champions event.

Coming off a break since the Senior British Open, Jobe played his first seven holes in 6 under, making the eagle on the par-5 16th. A six-time winner on the Japanese tour, he won a year ago in Iowa for his lone 50-and-over title.

“I’ve had a lot of weeks off,” Jobe said. “Always expect to come back a little rusty. Today was good, ball-striking was really good, made a few putts, hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens and kind of made it easy on myself.”

Vijay Singh, a three-time winner at Warwick Hills in the PGA Tour’s defunct Buick Open, was a stroke back with Jeff Maggert and Esteban Toledo. Tiger Woods won the final Buick Open in 2009.

Tom Lehman was at 67 with Lee Janzen, Paul Broadhurst, David Toms and David McKenzie.

Fred Couples, the 1994 Buick Open winner, had a 69.

Two-time Warwick Hills winner Kenny Perry opened with a 70. Bernhard Langer and Mark Calcavecchia also shot 70. Senior newcomer Darren Clarke was at 71 with Scott McCarron, the winner two weeks ago in Calgary, Alberta.

John Daly withdrew on his ninth hole because of a neck and shoulder problem. He was 5 over for the eight holes.

Low scores at KLM

Ashun Wu of China birdied his first two holes Friday to set up a 5-under 66 and take a three-shot lead into the weekend at the KLM Open in The Hague, Netherlands. Wu’s round followed a bogey-free 64 Thursday and put him ahead of Englishman Jonathan Thomson, who had 10 birdies and three bogeys on his way to a 36-hole total of 133 at The Dutch in Spijk. Thomson reeled off seven birdies as he started on a back-nine 28 to match the lowest nine-hole score of the European Tour this season.