Andrew Loupe, Steve Wheatcroft co-leaders at Wells Fargo Championship

Steve Wheatcroft and Andrew Loupe each shot seven-under-par 65 on Thursday in rain and steady wind to share the first-round lead in the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C., while Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler dodged a thrown golf ball with an earplug attached to it.

As if battling a lengthy and saturated course wasn’t enough, playing partners McIlroy and Fowler endured a bizarre event on the sixth tee box when a spectator hurled the dressed-up golf ball their way as Fowler was preparing to hit.

“So random,” Fowler said. “The guy tried to say it was a gift. I don’t know why you would give a gift of a golf ball with an earplug attached to it.”

The fan was escorted from the property by police.

“It was one of those things,” McIlroy said. “It was a golf ball with an ear plug stuck on it, so it was sort of strange.”

Fowler, the 2012 winner, finished with a 71, leaving him six shots behind Wheatcroft and Loupe, who were also paired together. McIlroy, the only two-time winner of the tournament, shot a 73 after a bogey-plagued start to his title defense. He won by seven shots last year, finishing at 21 under.

India’s Anibarn Lahiri was a shot back after a 66.

Phil Mickelson, who has finished in the top five six times in 12 starts at the Wells Fargo Championship but never won, opened with a 69.

Jim Furyk shot a 73 in his return from an eight-month layoff because of a wrist injury.

Top-ranked Jason Day and No. 2 Jordan Spieth did not enter the event, and No. 8 Dustin Johnson withdrew earlier in the week because of unspecified reasons.

Beck lead LPGA event

Laetitia Beck took the first-round lead in the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic in Prattville, Ala., dodging some of the wind Thursday morning in a bogey-free seven-under 65.

The 24-year-old Beck, the first Israeli player to qualify for the LPGA Tour, was in the first group of the day off 10th tee. She birdied four of the final five holes on her opening nine in calmer conditions, and had three more — two on pa-five holes — on the windier second nine.

Annie Park and Minjee Lee were tied for second at 67. They played in the afternoon.

Beck hit 11 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens and had only 26 putts on the links-style Senator Course at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail’s Capitol Hill complex. The former Duke player is winless on the tour.

Three-way tie at Trophee Hassan II

Italy’s Francesco Laporta, France’s Thomas Linard and Australia’s Jason Scrivener shared the first-round lead in the Trophee Hassan II in Rabat, Morocco, at four-under 68.

Morocco’s Younes El Hassani was a shot back at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam along with Spain’s Borja Virto Astudillo, Argentina’s Estanislao Goya and Frenchmen Adrien Saddier and Mike Lorenzo-Vera.