Stadler leads at Barclays
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Kevin Stadler teed off just after breakfast and finished right before dinner. It took him nearly 11 hours to complete a 7-under 64 at Liberty National, his lowest score on the PGA Tour since the first week of February. And he still isn’t guaranteed to be the first-round leader at The Barclays.
The FedEx Cup playoffs got off to a soggy start Thursday with two rain delays that lasted six hours.
It was a start-again, stop-again day on the bank of the Hudson River, but that didn’t stop Stadler. He ran off three birdies early, then returned from the second delay and had four more birdies on a soft golf course.
Tiger Woods, the No. 1 player in the world and in this playoff series, came out of the first delay by missing a short birdie putt on the par-5 13th and then rolling in three straight birdies to get into the mix. He cooled slightly after the slightly longer second delay, and failed to make birdie on any of the par 5s in his round of 67.
Only the top half of the draw finished the round. The later starters — Ben Crane played only two holes — were to resume the round Friday morning and then go straight to the second round. That left the top half facing extra holes on Saturday to get the tournament caught up.
British Open champion Phil Mickelson and Masters champion Adam Scott were among those who didn’t finish. PGA champion Jason Dufner had a 71, while U.S. Open champion Justin Rose carded a 68.
OTHER TOURNAMENTS
Canadian Women’s Open at Edmonton, Alberta: Lydia Ko was back on top of the Canadian Women’s Open leaderboard.
The 16-year-old Ko, the winner last year at Vancouver Golf Club at an LPGA Tour-record age of 15 years, 4 months, shot a 5-under 65 in perfect conditions for a share of the first-round lead with Angela Stanford and Christel Boeljon.
Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, Scotland: Bernd Wiesberger of Austria and Ricardo Gonzalez of Argentina took full advantage of ideal scoring conditions to shoot 7-under 65s Thursday and share a one-shot lead after the first round of the European Tour event. Six players, including the English trio of Oliver Fisher, Ross Fisher and Mark Foster, were a shot behind.