Munoz picks up where he left off, shares lead in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. — Defending champion Sebastian Munoz found happy memories Thursday at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

Munoz nearly holed a wedge on his opening hole as part of his fast start, ran in four straight birdies on the back nine and wound up with an 8-under 64 to share of the lead with Jimmy Walker, Kevin Chappell and Charley Hoffman.

The Country Club of Jackson was soft from recent downpours, though the greens were running fast and true, contributing to the good scoring.

Sixteen players were at 67 or better.

The Colombian figured there were good scores to be had when he saw Walker and Hoffman at 64 before he teed off, with plenty of other low scores right behind them. His only bogey came on the ninth hole when his drive landed in a divot and he missed the green to the left.

All that did was slow his momentum briefly, and he picked that right back up starting on the 13th with four straight birdies, all of them within 6 feet.

Walker wasn’t feeling his best and wasn’t sure what to expect, especially after missing two short birdie putts to start his round. Instead, it was his best start in more than two years. His eighth and final birdie of a bogey-free round was on No. 8, where he had a speck of mud o the right of the ball, the wind out of the right and the pin tucked to the right.

Hoffman made nine birdies in his round of 64.

Shoprite LPGA Classic

GALLOWAY, N.J. — Lauren Stephenson holed out from the rough from 137 yards for eagle on the par-4 14th and shot an 8-under 63 on Thursday for a share of the Shoprite LPGA Classic lead with Mi Hyang Lee.

Stephenson, the 23-yearold former Clemson and Alabama player in her second season on the LPGA Tour, birdied four of the first five holes and finished the morning round on Seaview’s Bay Course with eight birdies and two bogeys.

She used a pitching wedge for the eagle. “I was in the rough and I assumed it was going to skip forward,” Stephenson said. “I just saw the bounce and I thought it had stopped and I was happy with that because I was worried it was going to skip through the green.”

Lee, the 27-year-old South Korean player who won the last of her two LPGA Tour titles in 2017, birdied the final two holes in a bogey-free afternoon round.

Ryann O’Toole and Nasa Hataoka were a stroke back.

Jennifer Song shot 65, and Katherine Kirk was at 66 with Patty Tavatanakit, Brittany Altomare, Ashleigh Buhai, 81 Lindy Duncan and Jenny Shin. Defending champion Lexi Thompson, winless since the June event last year, opened with a 67.

Thompson played alongside two-time tournament champions Stacy Lewis and Anna Nordqvist. Lewis shot 70, and Nordqvist 71.

Georgia Hall, the Cambia Portland Classic winner two weeks ago, matched Thompson at 67.