Heintz, Laird (63) match record at Greensboro
Bob Heintz and rookie Martin Laird matched the course record Thursday with seven-under-par 63s at Greensboro, N.C., to share the lead in the Wyndham Championship, the PGA Tour’s last event before the FedEx Cup playoffs.
They joined three other players who previously shot 63s at the Donald Ross-designed course -- nobody had done it since Gary Player in 1970, although the pros haven’t played Sedgefield since 1976 -- and surpassed the venue’s opening-round record by one stroke.
Garrett Willis birdied his final five holes to join Scott Sterling, Tim Clark and Carl Pettersson one stroke back at 64. Steve Marino, Bob Sowards, Ken Duke and Scott McCarron were two strokes behind at 65.
Heintz started his round on the back nine and birdied five of his first eight holes. He could have pushed his score even lower on his final hole, the par-four ninth, but he pushed his 15-foot birdie putt to the right.
Laird’s round was bogey-free with five birdies -- including one on the course’s toughest hole, the par-four 18th. He added an eagle on the par-four 13th, using a wedge out of the left rough and holing out from about 115 yards.
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Defending champion Lorena Ochoa shot a bogey-free six-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead over Annika Sorenstam in the Canadian Women’s Open at Ottawa.
Ochoa, the winner last year at Royal Mayfair in Edmonton, hit all 18 greens in regulation and was in the rough only once in sunny, calm conditions on the tree-lined Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club course.
Michelle Wie, using the last of her six 2008 sponsor exemptions, bogeyed three of her last six holes for a 75. She birdied Nos. 1 and 3 to get to two under, but gave the strokes back with double bogey on the par-five sixth hole.
The 18-year-old Stanford student, down to No. 309 in the world, needs to win or finish second to avoid a trip to Q-school -- if she decides to try qualifying.
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Defending champion Mark McNulty shot a five-under 67 for a share of the first-round lead in the JELD-WEN Tradition at Sunriver, Ore., the fourth of the Champions Tour’s five major tournaments.
Craig Stadler, Gene Jones, Mark Wiebe, Tim Simpson, Jay Haas and David Eger joined McNulty at the top of the leaderboard. The seven-man logjam matched the 1989 GTE North Classic for the biggest tie after 18 holes in Champions Tour history.
Taking advantage of calm and clear conditions, 15 players finished within a shot of the lead and 46 of the 68 players were even par or better on the Crosswater Course -- the tour’s longest at 7,533 yards.
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