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Ryan Moore takes Deutsche Bank lead with a first-round 65

Ryan Moore hits out of a fairway bunker at No. 18 during the first round of the Deutsche Bank Championship on Friday.
(David Cannon / Getty Images)
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Ryan Moore changed his schedule to pile up tournaments at the end of the year with hopes of getting into a rhythm going into the FedEx Cup playoffs. He has no complaints with the results.

Moore backed up a good start to the playoffs with a six-under 65 on Friday to share the first-round lead with James Hahn on a day when hardly anyone seemed too far away. After one round at the TPC Boston, 37 players were separated by three shots.

Phil Mickelson would be an exception. Mickelson, who leads the PGA Tour in adjusted scoring average and said he wanted to win the Vardon Trophy for the first time in his career, took two swipes out of high grass in a water hazard to no avail, finally took a drop and made a quadruple-bogey eight on the sixth hole. That sent him to 75.

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Moore and Hahn played bogey-free on a breezy day that allowed for good scoring, even though no one went terribly low. They were one shot ahead of Paul Casey and Fabian Gomez. The average score was 69.67 as 80 of the 97 players in the field were at par or better.

Moore won the John Deere Classic last month and tied for seventh last week at The Barclays in the playoff opener to move to No. 11 in the FedEx Cup.

As usual, there were Ryder Cup implications.

Jim Furyk, J.B. Holmes and Daniel Berger were in the group at 67, all of them to make an impression before Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III starts filling out the U.S. team with three picks in 10 days. Holmes finished 10th in the standings, while Furyk was at No. 15 even though he four months recovering from wrist surgery.

Jordan Spieth, Barclays winner Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson were at 68. Jason Day, the world No. 1, opened with a 70 and then discovered his wife and two children were involved in a car accident near their travel bus. Day said his wife was taken to the hospital as a precaution, though everyone seemed to be OK.

Alex takes LPGA lead

Marina Alex eagled her final hole for an eight-under 64 and the second-round lead in the LPGA Manulife Classic in Cambridge, Canada.

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Alex played the final five holes in five under for the lowest score in her LPGA Tour career, setting up the 18-foot eagle putt with a five-wood approach on the par-five ninth.

The 26-year-old former Vanderbilt player had a 10-under 134 total at Whistle Bear for a one-stroke lead over Thailand’s P.K. Kongkraphan and South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim.

Second-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn was four strokes back after a 68 in her bid to win three straight events for the second time this season. She won the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open on Sunday in Alberta.

Kongkraphan had a bogey-free 66, and Kim closed with a birdie for a 67.

Canadian star Brooke Henderson was three under after a 71. Top-ranked Lydia Ko was 2 under after a 72.

Langasque leads European Masters

France’s Romain Langasque shot a seven-under 63 for a share of the European Masters lead with Australia’s Richard Green and England’s Richard Bland.

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The 21-year-old Langasque, making his fifth European Tour start, matched Green (66) and Bland (654) at 9-under 131 at Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club in Switzerland.

Defending champion Danny Willett of England had a quadruple-bogey eight at the par-four 12th in his round of 72. The Masters champion was three under. England’s Lee Westwood, a Ryder Cup pick by captain Darren Clarke, shot a 66 to move to two under.

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