GOLF NEWS
ROBERT MACINTYRE BIRDIES LAST SIX HOLES TO SEIZE BMW LEAD
Robert MacIntyre of Scotland birdied his last six holes to blow past Scottie Scheffler and grab the first-round lead of the BMW Championship on Thursday in Owings Mills, Md.
MacIntyre posted an 8-under-par 62 at Caves Valley Golf Club, which also hosted this tournament in 2021 and produced a plethora of low scores, including a 27-under winning mark for Patrick Cantlay.
Nobody went lower than MacIntyre to open this year’s edition. He will take a three-stroke lead over Englishman Tommy Fleetwood into Friday. Scheffler (4-under 66) is alone in third after taking the lead into the clubhouse in the day.
MacIntyre entered the week 20th in the FedEx Cup standings. The top 30 after Sunday qualify for next week’s Tour Championship, and a strong finish in Maryland would take MacIntyre far away from that bubble.
The 29-year-old said he didn’t believe a 62 was likely for anyone Thursday.
“There’s chances. If you drive the ball well, it does give you chances,” MacIntyre said. “… I’m sure the next couple of days won’t be as easy.”
MacIntyre birdied the 11th hole but bogeyed the 12th to sit at 2 under for his round Thursday afternoon. His remarkable birdie run began with a 66-foot putt at the par-3 13th and a 40-footer at No. 14.
In fact, the first five birdies of that streak all came from at least 11 feet out. At No. 18, he knocked his approach shot to inside 5 feet for the exclamation point.
“Probably the last six holes is probably as good as I’ve ever putted in a stretch of holes,” said MacIntyre, whose big moment this year was a runner-up finish at the U.S. Open. “Just so consistent.”
Fleetwood’s bogey-free 65 included a long putt of his own, a nearly 34-foot left-to-righter on the final hole to move past Scheffler for second.
“To go bogey-free around there is really, really good,” said Fleetwood. “I think I made like two or three really good par saves, but apart from that, I did a lot of things well.”
Fleetwood nearly captured his first PGA Tour victory last week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship but a late bogey kept him out of a playoff eventually won by countryman Justin Rose.
There was a two-hour, 13-minute delay in the afternoon due to lightning in the area. When play resumed, Scheffler birdied three of his final four holes to set the early pace at 4-under 66.
“Significantly softer,” Scheffler said of how the course changed. “The fairways were really rolling out to start the day. Greens were firm. So yeah, golf course changed pretty significantly after the delay.”
Tied at 3-under 67 are Rickie Fowler, Ben Griffin and Norway’s Viktor Hovland.
Hovland, the 2023 BMW and FedEx Cup champion, needs a strong week to stay inside the top 30; he entered at No. 28.
“It’s still another tournament,” Hovland said. “I’ve still got to play well, and then we’ll see how it shakes up. If I play halfway decent, that top 30 shouldn’t be an issue. Just trying not to lose my mind out there if it goes south.”
Fan favorite Fowler leapt from No. 64 to No. 48 by tying for sixth last week at the St. Jude. Another high finish could place him in the Tour Championship field for just the second time this decade.
“I feel like things have been heading in the right direction, and I’ve been in a good spot for a few months now of knowing where the game is and it’s continuing to get better,” Fowler said.
“This (course) is a bit different. It’s a lot different test than what Memphis gave us last week, but with how the game has been, in a way kind of playing the last two weeks — more so this week probably in a way, more so nothing to lose.”
ROOKIE ADELA CERNOUSEK SURGES TO FIRST-ROUND LEAD IN PORTLAND
Adela Cernousek, a 22-year-old French rookie, turned in an exceptional second nine on Thursday and charged into the lead of the Standard Portland (Ore.) Classic.
Cernousek shot an 8-under-par 64 at Columbia Edgewater Country Club, leaving her one stroke ahead of Gurleen Kaur, China’s Miranda Wang, two-time Portland champion Brooke M. Henderson of Canada and the South Korean duo of Jeongeun Lee5 and Sung Hyun Park.
After starting on the back nine and making one birdie and eight pars before the turn, Cernousek birdied Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 6 to charge up the leaderboard.
“No, I was just trying to do the same thing,” Cernousek said when asked if she played more aggressively closer to the greens on the back nine. “Like hit the fairways, get close to the pin and try to make the putts, like have good speed on the putts.”
She then registered an eagle at the par-5 No. 7 before closing with another birdie at No. 9 to break a six-way tie for first place.
“I think I was hitting the ball very well,” Cernousek said. “My caddie really helped me with distances. I think I always had like very close putts for birdie. I was able to make a lot of them, so it was great. I felt very good with my whole game, yeah.”
The 2024 individual NCAA champion for Texas A&M, Cernousek is making her 13th LPGA start. She has made cuts as a pro just three times, never ending up in the top 20.
South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai, Sweden’s Linn Grant, South Korea’s Haeran Ryu, Thailand’s Arpichaya Yubol and France’s Perrine Delacour are two strokes back at 66.
Eight players, including past Portland winner Jin Young Ko of South Korea and amateur Kiara Romero, are tied for 12th at 67.
Henderson, the Portland champion in 2015 and 2016 at ages 17 and 18, opened and closed her round effectively on Thursday. Starting on the back nine, she birdied her first four holes, and she concluded her bogey-free rounds with birdies on three of the final five holes.
“It was a really awesome start, four birdies in a row,” Henderson said. “I mean, that’s an ideal start any week, especially here. I love coming back to this place. I do have a lot of the great memories. A lot of good things happened to me here.
“So just tried to keep it rolling after that great start and was able to capitalize with three birdies on the back nine to get a little bit closer to the top of the leaderboard.”
Lee5’s round included six birdies, a bogey and an eagle on her 10th hole of the day, at the par-4 No. 1.
Wang didn’t have a bogey on her card, and she ran off five birdies in a six-hole span on the back nine near the end of her round.
“My swing was very pure and I had so much trust in my swing,” Wang said. “That’s really helpful. I see the number and hit my shot and it just turn out really good. My putting was improved a lot over … the last few weeks. I was happy with it.”
Park and Kaur had just one bogey apiece.
Defending champion Moriya Jutanugarn of Thailand is tied for 97th at 73.
TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP COUNTS TOWARD CAREER EARNINGS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE ‘18
However the $40 million prize pool is doled out next week, each player to compete at next week’s Tour Championship will earn “official money” in the eyes of the PGA Tour.
The entire purse at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta will be considered “official money,” Front Office Sports and others reported this week.
It’s a departure from how the tour tabulated career earnings from 2019-24. During that time, the FedEx Cup playoffs were contracted from four to three tournaments and the Tour Championship introduced the “starting strokes” staggered start that rewarded players for their standing in the season-long points race.
This year, the tour is doing away with that start, so all 30 players to qualify for the Tour Championship will start at even par rather than, say, Scottie Scheffler opening at 10 under par.
The leader after 72 holes of stroke play at East Lake will be crowned not only the winner of the Tour Championship but also the FedEx Cup champion. Because of that, the PGA Tour changed how it hands out bonus money for the season-long points race.
The winner of the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup will receive $10 million that counts toward that player’s official career earnings, rather than a bonus.
The change makes the Tour Championship the most lucrative tournament of the season, as the $40 million total prize purse easily outpaces the $25 million on offer at The Players Championship.
