Follow live: Kuchar strikes out in front at The Open

BLAINE, Minn. (AP) — Scott Piercy shot a 6-under 65 to share the 3M Open lead with Sungjae Im after the first round Thursday. Tony Finau was two strokes back, with three near misses of birdie putts over his last four holes, along with Brice Garnett, Doug Ghim, Emiliano Grillo and Tom Hoge. On a dry, windy, 86-degree day at the TPC Twin Cities in suburban Minneapolis, the course’s penchant for producing low scores held up once again. Playing in the second group of the day off the first tee, Piercy made 151 feet worth of putts. He birdied four of the first five holes on his back nine. The 43-year-old Piercy, who led the 3M Open in 2019 by two strokes after the first round, is one of several on-the-fringe players in the field this year seeking a late-season lift in the FedEx Cup race. Piercy arrived in Minnesota in 138th place, with the cut for the playoffs at 125 and two events left after this to qualify. In four of his last six starts, Piercy has failed to advance to the weekend. On TOUR since 2009, Piercy has four career wins. Just last week, he switched his caddie, his swing coach, his driver and his putter — an uncharacteristically drastic series of decisions for him. “Every shot counts, and it’s time to buckle down,” Piercy said. “Not that we don’t try to buckle down all the time, but there’s extra buckling down, I guess. To start off this way is really nice.” Im, who’s 19th in the FedEx Cup standings and 24th in the world, birdied four of his last six holes. The 24-year-old from South Korea tied for eighth at the Masters this year but tied for 81st last week at the British Open. Finau, the lone member of last year’s U.S. Ryder Cup team and the 17th-ranked player in the world, has two top-five finishes this summer. The Utah player missed a 3-foot birdie putt on 15 and left a 4-footer for birdie just short on 16. Then on the 18th, his tee and approach shots were spot on, but an 8-foot birdie putt lipped out and settled 4 inches from the cup. Making two of those three would’ve put him in the lead. The highest-ranked player in the field, Hideki Matsuyama, withdrew. He cited a sore wrist after shooting a 77 to match his worst round of the season, his Saturday at the Masters on April 9. Entering the week in eighth place in the FedEx Cup race and the world’s No. 14 player, Matsuyama hit into the water three times on the unforgiving and lakeside 18th hole and took a quadruple-bogey 9. Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters winner and a fourth-place finisher at the U.S. Open this summer, tied for seventh at the first edition of the 3M Open in 2019. Mardy Fish, the former tennis star who’s playing on a sponsor exemption, was tied for last at 81.

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Tiger Woods feels a special energy around the Old Course at St Andrews. He has referred to it throughout his career as his favorite course in the world. He has won two Open Championships there. This summer, he has made the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews his priority. Woods traveled to Europe a week early for this week’s JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor GC in Ireland, and he said Tuesday that his decision to not compete at last month’s U.S. Open was made with an eye ahead. “I had some issues with my leg, and it would have put this tournament in jeopardy, and so there’s no reason to do that,” Woods told reporters Tuesday. “This is a pretty historic Open that we are going to be playing. I’m lucky enough to be part of the past champions that have won there, and want to play there again, and I don’t know when they are ever going to go back while I’m still able to play at a high level. “I want to be able to give it at least one more run at a high level.” Woods has competed in five previous Open Championships at St Andrews. His eight-stroke victory in 2000 was his second of four consecutive major titles in what is known as the “Tiger Slam.” His two-stroke victory at St Andrews in 2005 was his second of three Open Championship titles; he also won in 2006 at Royal Liverpool. Woods’ first Open Championship appearance came in 1995 at St Andrews. He made the cut as an amateur and finished T68. He finished T23 at St Andrews in 2010 and missed the cut in 2015. “I’ve always loved this golf course, from the first time I played it back in ’95,” Woods said at the 2015 Open at St Andrews. “I just love the creativity. You have to be able to hit all different types of shots. You need to have the right angles. Over the years of learning how to play the golf course under all different types of wind conditions, it changes greatly, and it’s based on angles. You have to put the ball on certain sides of the fairways in order to get the ball close. “To me, that type of thinking and the strategy that goes into that is something I’ve always loved.” After suffering severe injuries to both legs in a single-car accident in February 2021, Woods made his competitive return at this year’s Masters, making the cut and finishing solo 47th. He also made the cut at the PGA Championship in May but withdrew after a third-round 79; he had cited leg soreness after the round. Woods considered competing at last month’s U.S. Open at Brookline but withdrew prior to the tournament. He tweeted the week prior to the event that his body needed more time to get stronger for major championship golf. He flew to Ireland for this week’s two-day JP McManus Pro-Am, held Monday and Tuesday, and he plans to spend time practicing off-site before traveling to St Andrews. “If you asked me last year whether I would play golf again, all of my surgeons would have said no,” Woods said Tuesday. “But here I am playing two major championships this year. I will always be able to play golf, whether it’s this leg or someone else’s leg or false leg or different body pieces that have been placed or fused. I’ll always be able to play.” For the chance to play next week at St Andrews, he is very grateful.

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