The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cink among four on lead at St. Jude
Johnson, Spieth, Kaymer in same group at U.S. Open.
Matt Every, Scott Brown, Stewart Cink and Sebastian Munoz each shot 6-under 64s on Thursday to share the lead after one round at the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn.
Charl Schwartzel and Matt Jones were each one stroke back at the final tuneup before the U.S. Open.
Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen and Chez Reavie each shot a 66 on the par-70 TPC Southwind course.
The 33-year-old Every has two wins on the PGA Tour, but none since 2014. He’s only made two cuts this year and hasn’t finished better than a tie for 62nd at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.
Every had four birdies during his round and an eagle on the par-5 16th, sticking his second shot about 10 feet from the flagstick. He closed his round by making a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th.
Cink, Brown and Munoz joined him by making afternoon charges up the leaderboard.
Cink, 44, a six-time winner on tour and 2009 British Open winner, birdied three straight holes late in his round, including one from about 10 feet on the par-4 5th. He bogeyed the next hole, then closed his round with a birdie on No. 9 to catch Brown and Every.
“The key to my round today was the key to anyone’s round who plays well here and that is you’ve got to keep the ball in front of you,” Cink said. “Meaning, you don’t have to hit every fairway, but you can’t really be off too much.”
USGA: Tee times for next week’s U.S. Open were released Thursday and defending champion Dustin Johnson will be in the same group with Jordan Spieth and Martin Kaymer, making it a threesome of the most recent winners.
Johnson won last year at Oakmont, Spieth won in 2015 at Chambers Bay and Kaymer won in 2014 at Pinehurst No. 2.
They start at 8:35 a.m. CDT on the 10th hole Thursday, and will be in the afternoon wave off the first tee Friday.
Phil Mickelson, who said he will skip the U.S. Open because his daughter’s high school graduation in California starts at 10 a.m. PDT (noon Central) on Thursday, was placed in a 2:20 p.m. group, so unless something changes, Mickelson will not be able to make his tee time.
LPGA Tour: Suzann Pettersen and Mi Hyang Lee each shot an 8-under 64 to share the first-round lead at the Manulife LPGA Classic in Cambridge, Ontario. Hyo Joo Kim, Gonzalez Escall and Shanshan Feng were one shot back at 65.
European Tour: Twotime tour winner Felipe Aguilar of Chile shot a 7-under 65 to build a two-stroke lead over a group of three in the opening round of the Lyoness Open in Austria.