Camilo Villegas of Colombia carded a nine-under 63 on Thursday to seize the first-round lead in the US$5.3 million Buick Invitational.
Villegas, whose two US victories last year included the Tour Championship, was three shots in front of veteran Davis Love and Australian Aaron Baddeley, who both shot 66.
Villegas’ round included eight birdies, an eagle and just one bogey.
PHOTO: AFP
“Well, pretty fun day, obviously,” Villegas said. “Two chip-ins — that helps. One on No. 2 for eagle and then a nice one there on 17 to finish the round.”
Villegas said he didn’t even realize he had holed out the eagle on the second hole.
“I grabbed a 63-degree [wedge], I just puffed it up in the air and since I hit it I knew it was good, but I didn’t see the ball go in,” he said. “My caddie said: ‘It went in.’”
Aussie Stuart Appleby, Jeff Overton and Robert Garrigus were five shots off the lead on four-under 68.
A logjam of nine players, including Australians Mathew Goggin and Jason Day, were on 69.
Three-time champion Phil Mickelson was in a group on two-under 70, tied with 16 other players.
Reigning British Open and PGA champion Padraig Harrington was three-under through the turn, but his inward run included a double-bogey and bogey before a birdie at 18 saw him finish on 71.
The Irishman is playing in his first tournament of the season after having two non-malignant melanomas removed from near his right eye.
■AUSTRALIAN MASTERS
AP, GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA
Australia’s Nikki Campbell, who plays most of her golf in Japan, shot a seven-under 65 yesterday to take a one-stroke lead after two rounds of the ANZ Australian Ladies Masters at Royal Pines.
Campbell had a 10-under total of 134, putting her a shot ahead of fellow Australian Kristie Smith, who had seven straight birdies to start her round and finished with a 62.
“I hit a few bad shots, but made a few good recoveries, including chipping in on the 12th,” Campbell said. “Putting is the key to playing this course well.”
Another Australian, LPGA Tour regular Katherine Hull, was in third place after a 67, two strokes behind.
Smith, the 20-year-old daughter of former Australian touring pro Wayne Smith, one-putted her first seven greens to go seven-under after seven holes. Her 62 improved on her previous best career round of 66 — also at the Royal Pines resort course — in 2005.
Using a new cross-handed putting grip, she equaled the European Ladies Tour’s record of seven successive birdies, two short of American Beth Daniels’ world record of nine set in Texas in 1999.
She also equaled the course record set by Karrie Webb in 2007.
Webb shot 73 and was nine strokes back.
Smith had 12 birdies and two bogeys and took just 22 putts for the round.
■ASIAN TOUR
AFP, BANGKOK
Finland’s Toni Karjalainen yesterday gave his rookie season in Asia a boost when he carded a second round 12-under 64 to take the lead at the Asian Tour International in Bangkok.
Overnight leader Marcus Both of Australia was a shot off the pace after posting a 68 for a total of 131 at the halfway mark, while Japan’s Tetsuji Hiratsuka was in third place after carding a 68.
Japan’s Hirotaro Naito finished with a 66 to take fourth place, while South Korea’s Ted Oh and India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar are among the eight players bunched together in fifth place on 134.
After an early morning delay because of heavy fog, Karjalainen quickly got out of the blocks with two birdies in the opening back-nine at the Suwan Golf and Country Club.
The Finn continued his birdie blitz on the 17th and 18th, before making the turn at 31. He stormed home strongly on his inward run with another three more birdies on the second, sixth and ninth holes to cap a phenomenal round.
Hiratsuka mixed five birdies and two bogeys to drop a place down to third.
Defending champion Lin Wen-tang of Taiwan failed to make the weekend cut.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures