Bowditch takes lead at Nelson

IRVING, Texas—Steven Bowditch considers the AT&T Byron Nelson his home tournament— maybe not to the extent Jordan Spieth does.

The Australian matched his low round on the PGA Tour with an 8-under 62 on Thursday to take a two-shot lead over another Texan, Jimmy Walker. Spieth was seven shots back in his first round as Masters champion in the event that gave the Dallas player his start as a 16-year-old amateur in 2010.

Bowditch, who moved to the Dallas area 10 years ago, has made the cut just once at the Nelson—in his debut in 2011, when he tied for 60th after a third-round 80. He didn’t make it to the weekend each of the past three years at TPC Four Seasons.

James Hahn and Dallas resident Ryan Palmer shared third at 65, and 2011 Nelson champion Keegan Bradley was in the group 66. Danny Lee aced the par-3 17th with a 5-iron from 190 yards and was tied for ninth at 67.

Irish Open

NEWCASTLE, Northern Ireland—Rory McIlroy shot a season-worst 9-over 80 in the Irish Open to fall 13 strokes behind the first-round leaders.

The top-ranked McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, had nine bogeys in his morning round in cold and windy conditions and occasional rain at Royal County Down. He was tied for 150th in the 155-man field.

McIlroy missed the cut last week in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in England after winning the PGA Tour’s Wells Fargo Championship the previous week in North Carolina. McIlroy won the European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic in February and the WGC-Match Play Championship in San Francisco on May 3.

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington and Germany’s Maximilian Kieffer shot 67 to share the lead.