Creamer leads Evian Championship

Paula Creamer is leading a major tournament again, shooting a bogeyfree, 7underpar 64 Thursday in the sweltering first round of the Evian Championship in Evianlesbains, France.

When the Pleasanton native last topped a major leaderboard, she won the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open by four strokes to get her ninth title on the LPGA tour.

At the Evian Resort Golf Club, where she had a signature win as a teenager, the 32yearold moved one shot clear after making her seventh birdie on the par5 18th as temperatures rose to 95 degrees in the French heatwave.

“I feel really just in control,” said Creamer, now ranked No. 156 and whose last top10 finish in a major and last tournament win were both in 2014. “It’s been several years where I felt like just allinall good in my shoes.”

At 6under were Brittany Altomare, who earned a careerbest runnerup finish in Evian in 2017, seventime major winner Inbee Park, secondranked Jin Young Ko, and Mi Hyang Lee.

Jon Rahm matched his career low with an 8under 62 in the FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis, taking advantage of nearly perfect greens to open a threestroke lead in the World Golf Championships event.

Bubba Watson, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Smith and Shugo Imahira shot 65. Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter were among six players at 66.

Four Americans — Wes Short Jr., Scott Dunlap, Scott Parel and Ken Duke — topped the Senior British Open leaderboard, together with England’s Paul Broadhurst, when firstround play was suspended because of fading light at Lytham St. Annes, England.