4 in lead at St. Jude Classic
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — 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.
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.
“I haven’t played real well in a couple years, and I’ve been out here for like seven or eight, so I kind of know the drill,” Every said. “Like one round is not that big a deal. It is nice to play well, but yeah, they don’t hand out trophies after the first round.”
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 before sinking the putt. He closed his round by making a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th.
“Middle of the round got a little away from me, but I saved some shots and I haven’t been doing that lately,” Every said. “Then I played pretty solid the last few holes. So it was just a good day. I was kind of due for one.”
Cink, Brown and Munoz joined him by making afternoon charges up the leaderboard.
Brown, a 34-yearold who finished second at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and tied for second at the Genesis Open, followed a bogey on the 14th with consecutive birdies, holing a pair of putts from inside of 10 feet to pull even with Every.
He missed a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 18 that would have given him sole possession of the lead.
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, followed another shot back by Alena Sharp, Emily Pedersen, and Jodi Ewart Shadoff. Pettersen, who recently lost her yardage book for the course and had to write notes from scratch this week, said she trusted her eye and it paid off with six birdies over one eight-hole stretch.
Chilean golfer Felipe Aguilar shot a 7-under 65 to build a two-stroke lead over a group of three on a sunny opening day of the Lyoness Open in Austria. Starting on the back nine, the two-time European Tour winner bogeyed the par-4 11th but recovered with eight birdies in total.
On Thursday, less than 24 hours after ESPN reported that Smith had offered McDermott the job, the candidate tweeted that he “was looking forward to many more great years in Omaha.” Unless McDermott plans to coach the Buckeyes from Nebraska, I’d say he’s remaining with the Bluejays.
But is Mike Brown remaining with the Golden State Warriors as an assistant? And is Ohio State assistant Chris Jent remaining with the Buckeyes? An attempt at answers, in