Stricker paces suspended Senior Championship
Madison’s Steve Stricker topped the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship leader board at 5 under with a hole to play Thursday when the first round was suspended for the day because of lightning and rain in Akron, Ohio.
Coming off a victory two weeks ago in the U.S. Senior Open at Notre Dame, Stricker had a hole-in-one on the 184yard, par-3 seventh at Firestone Country Club.
Play was suspended at 12:55 p.m., and called for the day at 5:05 p.m. after just over an inch of rain soaked the course. Stricker was in the middle of the 18th fairway, facing a 140-yard shot on the par-4 hole, when play was stopped. He was set to resume play at 7 a.m. Friday.
“Bummed that we didn’t get to finish because that meant we could have slept in a little bit tomorrow, and then now we’ll have to get out here just to hit that shot,” Stricker said. “Hopefully, just one putt.
“And then we won’t tee off until 1 p.m. Maybe go back and I don’t know what we’ll do – kill time, eat breakfast a few times or something. Yeah, it would have been nice to finish.”
Stricker is seeking his third straight major victory on the PGA Tour Champions, a run that began with the Regions Tradition. He’s playing the 50-and-over event instead of going for a fourth victory at the John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour.
“I wish they were different weeks so I could play them both, but I decided to come here,” Stricker said. “I’m happy I’m here and I’m not second-guessing my decision at all.”
Paul Goydos was second at 2 under after five holes.
Ken Duke shot a 1-under 69. John Daly (8 holes), Jay Haas (15 holes), Duffy Waldorf (12 holes), Wes Short (10 holes), Miguel Angel Jiménez (8 holes), Lee Janzen (5 holes), Corey Pavin (5 holes) and Bart Bryant (3 holes) also were 1 under.
Bernhard Langer was even par after six holes. He won the tournament three straight times from 2014 through 2016.
Defending champion Vijay Singh was 1 over with two holes left.
Madison’s Jerry Kelly was 1 over after six holes.
Stricker used a 7-iron on the ace. “We had a 6-iron out to start with and then some breeze came up a little bit and I knew the 6-iron was borderline, a little bit too much,” Stricker said. “Then once that breeze, we felt that, we thought that 7-iron was going to be the right club. Came off good, it was just a little bit left of the hole and then it broke. … That’s always something very unexpected. You don’t expect that or see that very often.”
PGA Tour: Roberto Diaz shot a 9-under 62 to take the first-round lead in the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Illinois.
Adam Long and Russell Henley were two strokes back. Martin Laird was another stroke back at 65 with Ryan Palmer, Andrew Landry, Vaughn Taylor, Zack Sucher and Ryan Blaum.
Twenty-year-old rookie Matthew Wolff, who picked up his first career win at the 3M Open last week, opened with a
67.
Wolff, the youngest winner on the tour since Jordan Spieth won at Deere Run six years ago, hit 15 greens in regulation and played bogey-free.
LPGA Tour: Alena Sharp and Youngin Chun shared the Marathon Classic lead at 7-under 64 on Thursday, a stroke ahead of Stacy Lewis and three others at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio.
Azahara Munoz, Caroline Masson and Jenny Haglund matched Lewis at
65.
Lexi Thompson was at 66 with U.S. Women’s Open champion Jeongeun Lee6, Carlota Ciganda and Clariss Guce.