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.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS