MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Jon Rahm matched his career low with an 8-under 62 on Thursday in the FedEx St. Jude Invitational, taking advantage of nearly perfect greens to open a three-stroke lead in the World Golf Championships event.
Rahm rolled in five putts of at least 16 feet for birdies in the bogey-free opening round at TPC Southwind. Rahm finished with a 7-footer to save par. He also opened with 62s last year in his CareerBuilder Challenge victory and in January in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
Bubba Watson, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Smith and Shugo Imahira shot 65. Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter were among six players at 66.
Justin Thomas, the winner of the WGC event last year in its final time at Firestone in Ohio, had a 68. Dustin Johnson, the St. Jude Classic winner on this course last year, and Rory McIlroy, who missed the cut by a stroke last week in the British Open, each shot 69.
CHAMPIONS: A quartet of Americans – Wes Short Jr., Scott Dunlap, Scott Parel and Ken Duke – topped the Senior British Open leaderboard, together with England’s Paul Broadhurst, when first-round play was suspended due to fading light at Lytham St. Annes, England.
The leaders were a stroke ahead after a 3-under 67 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
Weather caused about a 3-hour delay during the day with play suspended twice because of lightning.
Former Ryder Cup captains Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie were tied for sixth with Americans Woody Austin and Tom Gillis, and Sweden’s Magnus P. Atlevi.
Short made an eagle on the par-5 11th, Broadhurst did the same on the par-4 13th, and Dunlap completed a bogey-free round. Parel will need to play a hole and Duke two on Friday to complete the first round.
LPGA: Paula Creamer is leading a major tournament again, shooting a bogey-free 7-under 64 in the first round of the Evian Championship at Evian-Les-Bains, France.
When Creamer last topped a major leaderboard, she won the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open by four strokes.
Creamer moved one shot clear after making her seventh birdie on the par-5 18th.
Brittany Altomare, who earned got a career-best runner-up finish in Evian in 2017, joined seven-time major winner Inbee Park and Jin Young Ko, the ANA Inspiration winner in April, at 6 under.
PGA: David Lingmerth had nine birdies to take the lead in the suspended first round of the Barracuda Championship, the PGA Tour’s lone modified Stableford scoring system event.
Lingmerth had 18 points at Montreaux Golf and Country Club in Reno, Nevada, under the format that awards eight points for albatross, five for eagle, two for birdie and zero for par, and subtracts a point for bogey and three for double bogey or worse. Play was stopped at 5:10 p.m. because of lightning and then called off for the rest of the day.
Tyrone Van Aswegen, Robert Streb and Tom Hoge were tied for second with 13 points.
RYDER CUP: The 2026 Ryder Cup will be played in Ireland, taking golf’s greatest team event to the home country of British Open champion Shane Lowry.
European organizers say they picked Adare Manor in County Limerick to host the biennial three-day match against the United States.
The decision by Ryder Cup Europe caps a stellar week for Irish golf and its fans after Lowry’s euphoric win at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
Ireland hosted one previous Ryder Cup before, in 2006 at The K Club in County Kildare.
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