Jessica Korda in contention again in return from jaw surgery

Collin Morikawa shot a 6-under 66 to lead by one stroke in rain-softened conditions Thursday morning at the Memorial, where only half the field finished the round.

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SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda – It was just one birdie on a day of over 650 of them, but it generated the loudest roar at Thursday’s opening round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. No surprise, it was from John Daly – and from a precarious position, no less. “Horrible lie,” said Daly, whose second shot to the 383-yard, par-4 ninth hole (his 18th) hopped through the green into a thickish coat of fringe. Daly gave it a quick look, shrugged his head and agreed with his caddie, longtime PGA TOUR member Pete Jordan, that putter was the only play. He closed the face, bumped his ball just onto the green and watched it roll 15 feet downhill into the cup. It left Daly at even-par 71 and miles away from Austin Smotherman’s lead at 9-under, with 100 names that broke par wedged in-between. But that hardly mattered to the crowd surrounding the adjacent ninth and 18th greens. They roared approval at Daly’s birdie and that, in turn, left him shaking his head. “It’s awesome. People have always been so good to me. I love them for it,” said Daly, here on a sponsor’s exemption. Why, at 56 and with an array of aches and pains, was he here? “I just wanted to play. I wanted to come play in warm weather, to see if it helps.” Though his request for a golf cart was granted, Daly hobbled most of the day, particularly navigating Port Royal’s hills up to the tee areas and greens. His left knee is bandaged and is a concern, said Daly, who recently had a platelet-rich plasma procedure to ease his arthritis. He had the same procedure down to his right knee a few years ago. Earlier this week Daly also had an injection in his left wrist to see if that eased discomfort from arthritis. Other than that, how was he feeling? Daly shook his head. An inward 3-under 33 left him at even-par, the knees and left wrist were sore, but it was the putter that caused the most pain in Round 1. “I hit it pretty good, for me, and gave myself a lot of looks. But I putted terrible. It could have been a really good round,” said Daly, who was T123 out of 132 in putting. But when measured by the level of noise ignited by his fourth birdie of the day, Daly topped the rankings. And, that, he conceded, is why he still plays.

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Welcome to the PGA TOUR’s version of the play-in game. In the void of the annual NCAA basketball tournaments in 2020, sports fans will latch onto the twist at the Wyndham Championship, for it is the last tournament before the FedExCup Playoffs. It determines who gets into the annual series. RELATED: Featured Groups | The First Look | Inside the Field Of course, so much more also is at stake at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina. Scroll past the projected contenders for a review of the Wyndham Rewards, secondary goals within reach, what’s different about the course and more. POWER RANKINGS: WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP Defending champion J.T. Poston will be reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider along with fellow champions at Sedgefield, Sergio Garcia (2012) and Brandt Snedeker (2018). Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood and Sungjae Im also will be included among the notables. The season-long Wyndham Rewards will conclude this week. The top 10 in the final standings earn bonus (unofficial) prize money. All but the No. 1 position (held by Justin Thomas) are undetermined. As of midday Monday, eight of the 29 who are mathematically alive to finish inside the top 10 are scheduled to compete in the Wyndham Championship. Meanwhile, as detailed on April 30, all jobs are safe for the 2020-21 season because of the pandemic, but qualifying for the Playoffs can elevate status for dozens of golfers who currently don’t carry status strong enough to have advanced to last season’s Playoffs. As a result, the action around the top-125 bubble is much more volatile than it is around the top 10. From Graeme McDowell at 108th in points through Rob Oppenheim at 145th, every golfer is committed to the Wyndham Championship. Many more beneath Oppenheim also are in play. For those who finish 126-200 in the FedExCup, they will secure eligibility in the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Finals. With what hopes to be a full season on deck, and with all cards retained, that perk may not seem to be critical now, but it likely will matter for a handful. Sedgefield presents as a speed track to the finish line. Since it began hosting the Wyndham Championship in 2008, it’s been the easiest or second-easiest par 70 every season but one (2013). Last year’s scoring average of 68.175 was its record low. While there is value in splitting fairways, there’s just not enough to penalize wayward shots, so it’s a bomb-and-gouge opportunity even though the leaderboards don’t reflect that profile in the aggregate. Because scoring is so low, the objective is to hit as many of the Champion bermudagrass greens as possible and trust in the putter. Now, what’s sort of hilarious about believing in oneself to prevail and convert on the many benefits that go with winning is that J.T. Poston not only played video-game golf, it was cheat code kind of stuff. En route to his breakthrough victory in 2019, he ranked T2 in fairways hit (45 of 56), co-led in greens in regulation (62 of 72) and paced the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. Most impressively, he got up and down all 10 times to complete the tournament in bogey-free, 22-under 258. (By comparison, Scott Stallings also was perfect in scrambling for the week – he went 14-for-14 – but he three-putted five times, each resulting in a bogey. He finished T31.) Sedgefield has a new overall yardage for the first time since 2012. It’s only a couple of paces longer at 7,131 yards, all four extra yards as a result of a new tee on the par-4 14th hole, which now tips at 505 yards. Greens are dialed to measure 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. The longest rough will top out at a customary two-and-a-half inches. It’s mid-August in the Triad, so it’d be a surprise only if rain wasn’t in the forecast. And, well, it is. Storms also could fire with daytime heating. Sticky conditions will be the constant. Wind will not be a factor. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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