Browns tight end David Njoku, who was franchise-tagged after catching 36 passes for 475 yards and four TDs last season, has agreed to a four-year deal with the team worth $56.75 million, his agent confirmed.
FORT WORTH, Texas — This has been a good week in North Texas for Scott Stallings, first qualifying for the U.S. Open that will be played less than an hour from where he was born and now sharing the lead at Colonial with top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler. Stallings shot a 6-under 64 without a bogey on a relatively calm Friday at Hogan’s Alley. That put the Massachusetts-born and 206th-ranked player in the world at 9-under 131 along with with Dallas-area resident Scheffler and former University of Texas player Hossler, who both had bogey-free 65s. Scheffler, in one of the last groups of the day after Stallings and Hossler played in the morning wave, tied them with a 14-foot birdie putt at the par-4 17th and saved par at No. 18 after his final drive went left into the rough. “I think I needed to put up a good score with the wind being real low and the greens being not crazy firm,” said Scheffler, without a bogey so far this week. “Yeah, I love that stat. It’s a lot of fun. … I kept the stress off myself for the most part.” It was calm pretty much throughout the day Friday. But hot and breezy conditions are expected for the weekend rounds at the Charles Schwab Challenge, with gusts around 30 mph and temperatures in the mid- to upper-90s in the forecast. Scheffler and Hossler were among the Colonial-record eight players to share the 18-hole lead at 66. Stallings began the second round as one of the seven others within a stroke of that. Patrick Reed matched his opening 66 with another and was alone in fourth place at 8-under 132. Pat Perez (66) and Chris Kirk (67), the 2015 Colonial champion who hasn’t won on the PGA TOUR since, were 7 under. After missing the cut at last week’s PGA Championship like Scheffler did, the 37-year-old Stallings came to the Dallas area to play in a 36-hole qualifier Monday for the U.S. Open next month in Brookline, Massachusetts. He shot 8 under and placed 11th to get into his third U.S. Open and 12th major overall. “That was a huge goal, probably the biggest goal I had of the year, is to play the Open up there,” Stallings said Friday. “Probably the only time in my career I’ll have an opportunity to play a major championship in New England where at least half my family lives, my sister lives just down the road.” Stallings had eight birdies and five bogeys in his first round at Colonial. There were no bogeys on Friday, and no birdies until four in the middle of the round — at Nos. 8, 9, 11 and 12. The three-time PGA TOUR winner added another at No. 14, then finished by rolling in a 28-foot birdie putt. Having the momentum of qualifying for the U.S. Open “carry over into the week was nice to see, and take advantage of a day that we definitely haven’t seen very often here,” said Stallings, who was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, but now lives in Tennessee, where he went to school at Tennessee Tech. Jordan Spieth, another local favorite and No. 9 in the world, shot 66. He birdied his first two holes and had a 35-foot birdie putt when finishing on the ninth hole. Spieth was tied for 12th at 5 under. The 2016 Colonial winner, Spieth was the runner-up at Hogan’s Alley for the third time last year, when he led after each of the first three rounds before falling in a final-group showdown with Jason Kokrak the last day. Kokrak is even par through two rounds this year. Fifth-ranked Justin Thomas missed the cut at 3 over a week after winning the PGA Championship for the second time. His 72 on Friday included going 6 over over a four-hole stretch midway through the round — bogeys at No. 7, 8 and 10, and triple-bogey 7 at No. 9 without going in the water. It is the second year in a row the PGA winner played the following week at Colonial missed the cut. Last year it was Phil Mickelson. Hossler, in his 136th PGA TOUR event and still looking for his first victory, had a more steady second round after the exciting finish Thursday, when he had two eagle 2s his last four holes, though both hole-outs came immediately after bogeys. “Certainly, yesterday was more of an up-and-down round. Today felt frankly, never really stress-free, but as stress-free as it’s going to get,” Hossler said. “It felt like I was in play. I never was that out of position.” Nick Taylor, ranked 244th in the world, took the solo lead for the second day in a row. The Canadian dropped into a share of the first-round lead with a bogey on his final hole, and Friday shot 6-over 41 on his final nine holes after five birdies in his first nine holes to make his turn at 9 under.
Colton Herta was uninjured after his car flipped end over end during the final practice for the Indianapolis 500, which was led by Tony Kanaan setting Carb Day’s fastest lap.
Browns tight end David Njoku, who was franchise-tagged after catching 36 passes for 475 yards and four TDs last season, has agreed to a four-year deal with the team worth $56.75 million, a source told ESPN.
Scott McCarron and Stephen Ames both shoot 5-under 66 despite rain and wind to share the lead at the Senior PGA Championship.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Beau Hossler earned a share of the lead Thursday while almost no one watched. He kept it Friday in front of thousands. Hossler shot 9-under 66-65 at the Charles Schwab Challenge on two wildly different days at Colonial Country Club. His first round included eagles on two par-4 holes, both of them so late in the day that nearly everyone had vacated the property. His second round was an easier quest — five birdies, no bogeys, barely a sweat on his visored brow — down fairways lined with plentiful spectators getting a head start on the holiday weekend. And that’s exactly what Hossler got, too. He and Scott Stallings took the early lead of the $8.4-million tournament, one of the oldest on the PGA TOUR. “Today felt, frankly, never really stress-free, but as stress-free as it’s going to get,” Hossler said. “It felt like I was in play. I never was that out of position. Yesterday I was kind of grinding more.” Through 36 holes, Hossler gained more than nine strokes on the field in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, and nearly six in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. He ranked first in both categories. He ranked second in scrambling, converting 10 of 11 attempts in the first two rounds. With considerable wind in the forecast for Saturday, Hossler said he hoped his experience at Colonial — the former University of Texas Longhorn estimated he’d played the course more than 20 times since moving to Texas from California — would help his campaign to win for the first time in his five years on the TOUR. In fact, Hossler said, he welcomed menacing conditions. “To be honest, from my perspective, the harder the golf course plays, I think it favors me,” he said. “I’ve never been a player that thrives on shooting 30-under par in a tournament.” Hossler has made two cuts in four starts at the Charles Schwab. His best finish was a tie for 40th in 2019. His current season includes a third-place finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and two Top 10s, the most recent at the Valero Texas Open. Hossler had his chances last month in San Antonio, but shot even-par 72 in the final round. He finished in a tie for fourth. May is a different month. Colonial is a different course. “Hopefully it plays difficult,” Hossler said, “and smart strategy and good commitment and good execution is what will come out on top.”
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