Schauffele ties course record and wins Sentry Tournament of Champions

Rory McIlroy is a dad. Poppy Kennedy McIlroy was born Monday at 12:15 p.m. at Jupiter Medical Center, where the 18-time PGA TOUR winner lives in South Florida. Baby Poppy and mom Erica Stoll are "doing great," McIlroy said in his post breaking the news on Instagram and Twitter. "She is the absolute love of our lives," he said. He went on to thank "the staff at Jupiter Medical Center and Dr Sasha Melendy for their amazing care." McIlroy, the defending FedExCup champion, is still scheduled to play in this week's TOUR Championship in Atlanta. He is currently 12th in the FedExCup, without a top-10 finish since the TOUR came back from hiatus in June. The lackluster results were perplexing. As it turned out, McIlroy didn't tell anyone he and Erica were about to become first-time parents until the news broke during the third round of the BMW Championship last Saturday. "Yeah, I think from the get-go my mind has been wandering the last few weeks," he said from Olympia Fields in Chicago, where he finished T12 last weekend despite being on alert for a phone call from Erica. "And now you guys sort of know the reason why." If he plays, McIlroy will begin the TOUR Championship on Friday at 3 under par, seven behind top-seeded Dustin Johnson.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Matt Every, Scott Brown, Stuart Cink and Sebastian Munoz each shot 6-under 64s on Thursday to share the lead after one round at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. Charl Schwartzel and Matt Jones were each one stroke back at the final tuneup before the U.S. Open. Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen and Chez Reavie each shot a 66 on the par-70 TPC Southwind course. The 33-year-old Every has two wins on the PGA TOUR, but none since 2014. He’s only made two cuts this year and hasn’t finished better than a tie for 62nd at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard in March. “I haven’t played real well in a couple years, and I’ve been out here for like seven or eight, so I kind of know the drill,” Every said. “Like one round is not that big a deal. It is nice to play well, but yeah, they don’t hand out trophies after the first round.” Every had four birdies during his round and an eagle on the par-5 16th, sticking his second shot about 10 feet from the flagstick before sinking the putt. He closed his round by making a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th. “Middle of the round got a little away from me, but I saved some shots and I haven’t been doing that lately,” Every said. “Then I played pretty solid the last few holes. So it was just a good day. I was kind of due for one.” Cink, Brown and Munoz joined him by making afternoon charges up the leaderboard. “I’ve been striking it nicely now for a few months and just the putter’s kind of been a little inconsistent,” Brown said. “Hot some days, cold some days. … If I can keep the putter rolling, should be kind of in the mix for the week.” Cink, a 44-year-old, six-time winner on TOUR and 2009 Open Championship winner, birdied three straight holes late in his round, including one from about 10 feet on the par-4 5th. He bogeyed the next hole, then closed his round with a birdie on No. 9 to catch Brown and Every. “The key to my round today was the key to anyone’s round who plays well here and that is you’ve got to keep the ball in front of you,” Cink said. “Meaning, you don’t have to hit every fairway, but you can’t really be off too much.” Munoz, a 24-year-old, third-year pro from Colombia who’s chasing his first victory on TOUR, was bogey-free during the best round of his career. He had six birdies, including two in a row on Nos. 15-16. DIVOTS: Billy Horschel used a fairway wood to putt on his final hole after he broke his putter a hole earlier. After missing a 2-foot putt on No. 8, he flipped his putter in the air and the head snapped off when it struck the ground. According to PGA rules, he wasn’t allowed to use a new putter because it didn’t break during the course of play. He finished with a 72.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Matt Fitzpatrick’s fast start helped him move out in front in the Race to Dubai standings as Rory McIlroy looks to make ground in the first round of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship. Fitzpatrick birdied his first five holes and finished with a bogey-free 7-under 65 on Thursday for his lowest round on the Earth Course, where he is a two-time winner. The U.S. Open champion was tied for the lead with Tyrrell Hatton, who went on a run of four straight birdies from the 13th hole but finished with his lone bogey on the par-5 18th. McIlroy leads the Race to Dubai standings as he bids to be the DP World Tour’s leading player for the fourth time in his career, but needed a birdie on the 18th just to get under par with a 71 that tied him for 22nd. Ryan Fox, who is second in the points table to McIlroy, managed only a 73 to sit tied for 33rd. Fitzpatrick would clinch a first Race to Dubai title with a third win at the DP World Tour Championship, provided McIlroy or Fox don’t finish the event in second. Even a second-place finish would be good enough for Fitzpatrick as long as McIlroy doesn’t finish lower than seventh. Fitzpatrick said he was playing with “a real sore throat” but was laughing with his caddie after his early run of birdies. “It was a nice start to the day,” the Englishman said. “The biggest thing I’m so pleased about is just hitting 17 greens. And the one I missed I was a complete idiot.” McIlroy birdied four of his first eight holes but couldn’t get anything going on the back nine and gave away a cheap shot when he three-putted for his fourth bogey on the 16th. “Certainly not what I had hoped for,” McIlroy said. “Just started to drive the ball a bit crooked on the back nine… It was nice to birdie the last just to shoot under par. But obviously I’ve had three weeks off since THE CJ CUP, so just sort of trying to knock the rust off a little bit.” The top-ranked McIlroy is trying to win the FedExCup and Race to Dubai in the same year for the first time, having won each event on three occasions. His last Race to Dubai title came in 2015, having also won it in 2012 and 2014. Four other players — Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry and Adrian Meronk — also have an outside chance of overhauling McIlroy in the standings. Of those, Fleetwood had the best opening round with a 68. Hatton looked set to take the sole lead after capping his late run of birdies with a 64-foot downhill putt on the 16th. “It was hit and hope,” Hatton said of that shot. “Obviously holing a putt from that distance down a tier like that, you need a lot of luck. There was a few times today where I did get lucky, and that was obviously a nice break.”

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