Padraig Harrington takes early lead at the Barclays

Padraig Harrington found a way to take some of the attention away from Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy on Thursday. He made six birdies on the tough back nine of Bethpage Black at Farmingdale, N.Y., and opened the FedEx Cup playoffs with a seven-under-par 64 for a one-shot lead at the Barclays.

Harrington came to life on the back nine with four consecutive birdies to cap off his 64, giving him a one-shot lead over Nick Watney and Brian Harman among the early starters. The hotter it became, the crustier the greens were, and it was unlikely anyone would catch him. No one did.

Thousands of fans chased after Woods and McIlroy, in the marquee group based on their standing in the FedEx Cup — Woods at No. 1, McIlroy at No. 3. Both of them got off to a reasonable start. Woods scrambled nicely to recover from a few errant shots and scratched out a 68. McIlroy had three birdies through six holes, but he let the good start get away from him and settled for a 69.

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Top-ranked Yani Tseng shot a six-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Canadian Women’s Open at Coquitlam, British Columbia.

Emerging from a midseason slump, Tseng had eight birdies and a double bogey at the Vancouver Golf Club. The Taiwanese star opened the season with victories in three of her first five events, then had a series of missed cuts and poor finishes before tying for 11th last week in Oregon in the Safeway Classic.

ETC.

Little progress in NHL talks

The NHL Players’ Assn. presented what it called “player contracting proposals” during meetings with NHL representatives, but little apparent progress toward a new collective bargaining agreement was made during talks held Thursday in Toronto among large and small groups of negotiators. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the sides remain “far apart” on fundamental economic issues.

Bettman said the league’s view is that “we are paying the players more than we should be,” and said that he’d prefer to avoid a lockout but believes the league could bounce back after a stoppage.

Donald Fehr, executive director of the NHLPA, said talks will resume Tuesday in New York. “Hopefully, it will be productive when we get to it,” he said.

—Helene Elliott

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London Olympians Sean Rosenthal and Jake Gibb headline the field of the Manhattan Beach Open, known as the “crown jewel” of beach volleyball events, which begins Friday and will hold its championship matches Sunday.

The event, presented as part of the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series, opens with qualifying rounds Friday and moves to main draw competition Saturday. The total prize purse is $100,000, and the men’s and women’s first-place teams will each take home $11,000. Second-place teams win $7,500, third-place $5,500.

On the men’s side, Rosenthal and Gibb are the top-seeded men’s team, and Jenny Kropp and Whitney Pavlik, who won the event last year, are the top-seeded women’s team.

The event is free to the public.

—Baxter Holmes

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Defending champion John Isner and top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had straight-sets victories to set up a semifinal match in the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Open.

Second-seeded Tomas Berdych and seventh-seeded Sam Querrey also won their quarterfinal matches at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in the final hard-court tournament before the U.S. Open.

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Petra Kvitova clinched the U.S. Open Series title with a victory over Lucie Safarova in the quarterfinals of the New Haven (Conn.) Open.

The world’s fifth-ranked player had little trouble with her friend and countrywoman, winning, 6-3, 6-3.

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Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly said sophomore Everett Golson will start at quarterback in the opener Sept. 1 against Navy in Dublin, Ireland.

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Yohan Blake matched the fastest 100-meter time run by anyone other than Usain Bolt, finishing in 9.69 seconds to win the Athletissima Diamond League meet at Lausanne, Switzerland.

Running into a slight head wind, Blake tied Bolt and Tyson Gay for the third-best time ever.