PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Sung Kang didn’t know anything about his amateur partner until he went on the Internet and looked up actor Ray Romano. He didn’t realize the par at Monterey Peninsula was 71 until he scrambled for par on his final hole and realized while signing his card Friday that he set the course record with a career-low 60.

It added to a memorable day at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where Kang and Hiroshi Iwata of Japan wound up tied for the lead.

“I feel like I’m living a dream right now,” Kang said.

Kang and Phil Mickelson each brought the possibility of 59 into the picture – one early in his round, the other late.

Mickelson took only 11 putts on the front nine at Monterey Peninsula. When he made a 40-foot eagle putt on the 10th hole, he was 7 under for the round and had a pair of par 5s remaining over his last eight holes.

He made bogey on one of the par 5s, hooking his fairway metal into shrubs and having to reach into the thick plants with a hybrid to punch out the ball and make sure it only went about 6 feet so that it wouldn’t go up the slope and roll back into the bushes. Lefty usually doesn’t hit great shots that go 6 feet unless he has a putter.

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Then, he nearly lost his tee shot on the final hole and made another bogey for a 65, leaving him one shot behind.

“I thought I was going to shoot a lot lower than I did,” Mickelson said. “I didn’t expect to play 1 over coming in. But I’m not going to complain because I made a lot of good putts on the front.”

He goes to Pebble Beach on Saturday as he goes after a record-tying fifth win in this event.

Kang and Iwata were at 11-under 132.

Iwata, who tied a major championship record with a 63 at the PGA Championship last year at Whistling Straits, had a 66 at Pebble Beach.

Mickelson, Freddie Jacobson (69 at Spyglass Hill) and Chez Reavie (70 at Pebble Beach) were one shot to par behind at 10 under, while Justin Rose had a 68 at Monterey Peninsula and was at 9 under.

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CHAMPIONS: Bernhard Langer shot a 10-under 62 to take a four-stroke lead in the PGA Tour Champions’ Chubb Classic at TwinEagles in Naples, Florida.

Langer made 11 birdies, including five straight birdies on Nos. 3-7 and Nos. 14-18. The 58-year-old German star went on to win in 2013 after also opening with a 62. In the past seven years in Naples, Langer has two victories, two seconds, a tie for third and a tie for fourth.

Jay Haas was second. Jeff Maggert was third at 67, and Fred Couples was at 68 along with Kenny Perry, Kevin Sutherland, Steve Lowery, Scott Hoch and Michael Allen.

New Zealand Women’s Open: Top-ranked Lydia Ko shot a 3-under 69 in the first round, leaving her three strokes behind Norway’s Nicole Broch Larsen, in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Ko made a 20-foot putt on the 18th hole for her fifth birdie of the day in the round that also included two bogeys. The 18-year-old South Korean-born New Zealander won the event last year.

France’s Justine Dreher was second at 67.

EUROPEAN TOUR: South African star Charl Schwartzel shot a 6-under 64 to pull within two strokes of leader Anthony Michael in the suspended second round of the European Tour’s Tshwane Open in Pretoria, South Africa.

Michael had a 69 to reach 7 under before thunderstorm and then hail forced the suspension of play at Pretoria Country Club.

American Daniel Im was tied for third at 4 under after a 68.


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