Langer has 2-shot lead at Senior PGA
Trio of 65s lead at Colonial
Jon Rahm was at Colonial during tournament week each of the past two years to accept the Ben Hogan Award that goes to the nation's top college golfer. This time, he's playing in the PGA Tour event at Hogan's Alley and among the leaders. With his 4-under 66 on Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas, Rahm was a stroke behind first-round leaders Kelly Kraft, Derek Fathauer and PGA Tour rookie J.T. Poston. That also put Rahm ahead of two-time Colonial champs Phil Mickelson and Zach Johnson after both birdied their last three holes for 67s. He also led 2016 winner Jordan Spieth, whose even-par round included six birdies. "The last two times I was here, all I recorded was super happy and positive memories," Rahm said. "It's just the vibe that I have around this place is so positive, especially with Sergio (Garcia) winning and with the Ben Hogan history that I'm related to now." The 22-year-old Rahm, the winner at Torrey Pines in January, had only one bogey while playing with Masters champion Garcia, the fellow Spaniard who won in his first Colonial appearance in 2001. Kraft and Graeme McDowell, tied with Rahm for fourth, had the only bogey-free rounds. Only 33 of the 121 players finished the first round under par. Scott Brown had the other 66, and had the outright lead at 6 under before a double bogey at No. 18. Spieth, coming off missed cuts the past two weeks, was tied for 34th his six birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey. He was even par after birdies on his last two holes. "It's a great finish. Kept me in the tournament," Spieth said. "If I was a couple over, you know, in the back of my mind I would be wondering about the cut line." After two bogeys on the first four holes, Spieth made 4-foot birdie putt at the 466-yard No. 5 hole, and made a 10-foot birdie at the 168-yard, par-3 13th. In between those birdies at two of Colonial's toughest holes, Spieth made a nearly 40-foot putt to save par after a wayward drive at No. 9. His drive at the 10th went into a concrete culvert for another bogey, and he missed the fairway right again at the 622-yard 11th, only to get back in the fairway and go on to a 2-foot birdie. "Hit some very solid shots. With gusty winds, it's not going to end up where you think it's going to a lot of the time," Spieth said. "I felt like I missed some fairways by 1-5 yards today. That made a complete difference in the way the hole played." Before his birdie-birdie finish, Spieth had double bogey at the 429-yard 15th, when he blasted from a fairway bunker through the green and into the water, and made bogey at the par-3 16th. Mickelson, back at Hogan's Alley for the first time since 2010, made an 8-foot putt at the 435-yard 7th hole, then hit his tee shot inside 2 feet of the cup at the par-3 8th. His 33-footer at No. 9 came after playing partner Matt Kuchar had just missed a slightly longer putt on the same line on their finishing hole. When changes were made to the course after his 2008 victory, Mickelson missed the cut in 2010 with a chance to become the world's No. 1 player. He later indicated that Colonial no longer suited his game.
"Nothing real specific," he said, when asked what changed his mind. "It's been a while and I needed to ... I felt it was in my best interest to get in contention and try to play more events and try to get the scores, results out of it."
Rahm was at Arizona State when he became the first two-time winner of the Hogan Award. His first competitive round at Colonial came a day after Arizona State's women rallied to win their eighth NCAA championship, and first since 2009.
"To see them win in the fashion they did, it was amazing," said Rahm, who practiced with that team while in school. "The coolest thing is that's the closest I'll ever be to experiencing something like that and I'm happy for them . ... To be honest, that energy and positivity probably helped me today." Shrugging off fatigue from last week's victory, Bernhard Langer shot a 7-under 65 to take a two-shot lead in the first round of the Senior PGA Championship.
The 59-year-old German could break Jack Nicklaus' record of eight senior majors with a win at Trump National in Sterling, Va. He tied Nicklaus last week with a five-shot victory at the Regions Tradition. He would also become the first player to win all five of the current senior majors.
Langer started with five straight pars on a cool, misty morning before sparse galleries. The start was delayed 80 minutes because of overnight rain that saturated President Donald Trump's already-soft course on the shores of the Potomac River, about 25 miles from Washington. "I was really tired on Monday and Tuesday, really low on energy," Langer said. "Today, I felt fine. I got up early at 5 a.m. and went through my stretching routine and stuff and then heard about the delay, so sat around for an hour and a half, got all stiff again, so that part didn't help." Langer pumped his fist when he rolled in his first birdie, an 18-footer at the par-4 sixth hole. That started a run of six birdies in eight holes that tied him for the lead at 5 under. He missed only two fairways and just one green in regulation, leading to his only bogey. "I hit a lot of good putts," Langer said. "There was one or two other ones that actually I thought I made them and they just went over the edge, or one actually lipped out, but I also had two or three that went in that don't go in every day." He finished his round by hitting a 2-hybrid from 216 yards to 3 feet for eagle on the par-5 18th. "I had a very good yardage," Langer said. "I knew if I hit it somewhat solid it should land near the hole and it landed perfectly." The PGA of America allowed players to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairways and moved up some tees on the soggy course so that it played at just under 7,000 yards. "They shortened the course quite a bit and it turned out to be such a nice day, the course played incredibly short," said Tom Lehman, who was two shots back after a 67.
Lewis, Hsu tied for LPGA lead
Wei-Ling Hsu holed out a 7-iron for an eagle on the very first hole she played, setting the tone for a terrific start. At the end of the day, the unheralded golfer from Taiwan was tied atop the leaderboard with one of the LPGA Tour's most successful players. Hsu shot a 7-under 65 and shared the lead with Stacy Lewis after the first round of the LPGA Volvik Championship at Ann Arbor, Mich. Hsu eagled two of her first five holes and was 6 under after six. She and Lewis finished a stroke ahead of 18-year-old Nelly Korda. "I have a very tough year last year," Hsu said. "I just want to improve more. This year I'm able to see my shot going to the hole, going to making the green in regulation more." Hsu has only one top-10 finish on the LPGA Tour, and that came in her rookie year of 2015. She finished tied for 43rd last week in the Kingsmill Championship after missing the cut in the previous four events. Lewis, meanwhile, is a former world No. 1 with 11 LPGA victories — although she's winless in 72 events since June 2014. She has 12 second-place finishes since her last win. Lewis birdied three of her first four holes and reached 15 greens in regulation on the 6,734-yard course at Travis Pointe Country Club. She eagled the par-5 14th and capped her round with a small fist pump after a birdie on 18. "I looked up at the leaderboard and saw I was tied for the lead, so I kind of just wanted to get out there ahead," Lewis said. "It's always nice to see yourself atop the leaderboard." Lewis was a shot ahead of Korda when she finished, but Hsu later caught up at 7 under. Hsu began her round on No. 10, and she holed out from 155 yards for an eagle on the 394-yard par 4. "I don't see very well. I just hear my mom and gallery on the side," she said. "My caddie just tells me, 'Oh, you got it in. You got eagle.'" Korda, a rookie who has joined sister Jessica on the tour, hit only eight of 14 fairways, but she was able to scramble her way to a 34 on the front nine before birdieing four of the first five holes on the back. "It was a slow start and I saved a couple of long par putts," she said. "Just getting those, making those two pars and just getting my round rolling really helped." Korda finished her round with a par on the par-5 18th — after hitting her second shot out of the dirt in a hazard. "I didn't even know if I could chip it out, and my caddie was like, 'Oh, maybe you should drop,'" she said. "I was like, 'No, I'm going to hit this.' So I hit it out and then I had 200 into the green and I hit a 4-rescue. It was a good par." It rained a good deal Wednesday, and although the weather wasn't too much of an issue Thursday, the course was still quite wet. Lewis said hitting greens was especially crucial.
Carlsson leads at Wentworth
British Open champion Henrik Stenson shot a bogey-free, 4-under 68 to lie two strokes off the lead held by Swedish compatriot Johan Carlsson after the first round of the BMW PGA Championship at Virginia Water, England. All four of Stenson's birdies came on the back nine as Wentworth rolled out its new greens for the signature event on the European Tour. They appeared to meet with widespread approval, especially from Carlsson, whose hot run came on the front nine where he reached the turn in 30 shots, thanks to five birdies. "The greens are so good. I love this golf course right now," said Carlsson, who had eight birdies in total in his 66. "I think it has become so much better." Ernie Els was behind the latest changes to the West Course following criticism of his original redesign in 2010. The renovation program started eight days after Chris Wood's victory last year, with all 18 greens stripped of their old turf and reseeded.