Simpson, Fitzpatrick are tied for the lead
Webb Simpson ran off three straight late birdies for a share of the lead Thursday in the Workday Championship in Bradenton, Florida.
Simpson matched Matthew Fitzpatrick with a 6-under 66 at The Concession in the World Golf Championships event moved from Mexico City to Florida because of COVID-19 circumstances.
Simpson's finishing stretch included a wedge to 2 feet, a 30-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole and a two-putt birdie from about 40 feet on the par-5 17th.
Fitzpatrick, who contended last week at Riviera, played bogey-free on the Jack Nicklaus design that had never been used for a PGA Tour event.
Brooks Koepka was a stroke out of the lead at 67 with Billy Horschel, Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner, who is playing for the first time since the Sony Open because his wife had their third child.
Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau ran up some big numbers. They both ended up at 77 along with Bubba Watson.
Puerto Rico Open: Tommy Gainey birdied five of the last seven holes at breezy Grand Reserve for a 7-under 65 and the first-round lead in Rio Grande.
Gainey, the 45-year-old from South Carolina who won his lone PGA Tour title in 2012, had a one-stroke lead over local favorite Rafael Campos, Robert Garrigus, Taylor Pendrith, Lee Hodges, Greg Chalmers, Fabian Gomez and
Brandon Wu.
The winner will get into the PGA Championship in May but not the Masters in April.
LPGA Tour: Annika Sorenstam doesn't remember golf being this difficult.
She still managed plenty of smiles when the most dominant player of her era played her first Tour event in more than 12 years. With one birdie and one bad hole, Sorenstam had a 3-over 75 in the LPGA Gainbridge on her home course at Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida.
“It seems a little bit more stressful, this kind of golf,” she said.
Sorenstam was 10 shots behind another Lake Nona member, Lydia Ko, who opened with a 7-under 65 for a two-shot lead.
But then, this week isn't about Sorenstam adding to her 72 career victories or even starting a comeback at age 50. The LPGA Tour came to her home course and she wanted to play.
Sorenstam found about 150 people gathered around the first tee. That constitutes a sizeable crowd in the COVID-19 pandemic era.
“I was quite nervous. I've been nervous for a few days,” said Sorenstam, adding that she practiced meditation that morning to help calm her down.
The highlight was a gap wedge from about 95 yards on the 14th hole that landed some 10 feet behind the hole and spun back to a foot away for a tap-in birdie.