Leaderboard: DJ chasing WGC-Mexico win

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LA QUINTA, Calif. — Patrick Cantlay fought through gusting wind on his back nine Friday to take a one-stroke lead into the weekend at The American Express in a bid to win for the third time in four starts. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Will Zalatoris shoots 61 after making seven consecutive birdies Tied for the first-round lead with Lee Hodges after a 10-under 62 at La Quinta Country Club, Cantlay shot a 68 on PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament Course to reach 14-under 130. “I actually putted really well today and made nothing,” Cantlay said. “The greens were a little beat up and it was hard to make putts. But I rolled it really well and I rolled it how I wanted to, I just didn’t get any to go in.” Tom Hoge was second after a 66 on PGA West’s Stadium Course. “I really felt fortunate that we got through 17 holes without the wind really coming up,” Hoge said. “Just our last hole there it got gusting.” Joseph Bramlett, playing in the last group off the 10th tee at La Quinta, bogeyed the final two holes in strong wind for a 67 to drop into a five-man tie for third at 12 under. “We guessed on the whole back nine and a couple of them I guessed right and a couple of them I guessed wrong,” Bramlett said. “That’s just kind of golf.” Will Zalatoris birdied his last seven holes on the Nicklaus layout for a 61 to also join Cameron Young (68), Lanto Griffin (65) and Greyson Sigg (67) at 12 under. Young played at Nicklaus, and Griffin and Sigg at the Stadium. Cantlay won the BMW Championship and TOUR Championship in his final two starts last year to take the FedExCup, then opened this year with a fourth-place finish — at 26 under — two weeks ago in Hawaii in the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Last year in the desert, the 29-year-old former UCLA player closed with a Stadium-record 61 to finish a shot behind winner Si Woo Kim. Cantlay will play the Stadium the final two days, with more wind expected Saturday. “It’s a golf course that suits my game,” Cantlay said. “We’ll see how it plays tomorrow with the increased wind. … Controlling your golf ball will be a premium tomorrow and leaving your golf ball in the correct spot will be really key to scoring well.” Hoge will play tree-lined La Quinta on Saturday. “I feel better playing La Quinta,” Hoge said. “A little more protected over there in the trees, a little shorter golf course. You can play a little more conservatively off tees and just get it in play and go from there.” Zalatoris finished with a birdie from the wrong fairway on the par-4 ninth. The PGA TOUR rookie of the year is making his first start of the year. “I just gave myself chances,” Zalatoris said. “I hit a lot close and made a couple 20-, 30-footers to keep the round going and, obviously, making birdie on 9 from the wrong fairway is kind of the icing on the cake.” He wasn’t concerned about the wind that picked up just as he finished. “I live in Texas, so I’m used to it,” Zalatoris said. “Really, playing golf the last few days without a lot of wind has been a little strange for me, so I’m looking forward to the challenge tomorrow.” Hodges remained at 10 under after a 72 on the Nicklaus Tournament Course. Top-ranked Jon Rahm was 8 under after a 70 at the Nicklaus layout. He won the 2018 tournament. Kim was 4 under in his title defense after a 68 at Nicklaus. Tournament host Phil Mickelson was 155th in the 156-man field at 7 over. He shot a 73 at Nicklaus after opening with a 78 at La Quinta.

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ERIN, Wis. — Sergio Garcia was decked out in green Tuesday, as he set out for his first U.S. Open practice round at Erin Hills. Yes, Garcia wears the title of Masters champion quite well. A weight was lifted when he finally captured the major title that eluded him for all those years. What he’s done in the past does not guarantee success, adulation or even happiness in the future, though. Nobody has learned that lesson in a more public fashion than Garcia himself. Of his dozens of close calls, failures and embarrassments, a few have come at the U.S. Open — the “torture chamber” of a major, as 1993 PGA champion Paul Azinger called it — a tournament that often brings out the worst in people. “It’s tough to win, and majors are even tougher,” Garcia said. “And the U.S. Open, we all know how difficult they are.” Unlike his effervescent introduction to the majors — when he hit the shot from the base of the tree, then ran up the fairway during the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah — Garcia’s first week in genuine contention at a U.S. Open was a sordid, awkward affair. It was 15 years ago, back in the day of the waggle, when the Spaniard’s pre-shot routine involved dozens of hard-to-watch, back-and-forth motions with his hands as he tried to position himself to swing. He was playing in New York, going against Tiger Woods in the final round. He had complained bitterly earlier in the week about how everything always seemed to be set up to benefit Woods, who was then at the peak of his powers. Not surprisingly, the overserved fans at Bethpage Black let Garcia have it, heckling him at almost every turn. On Saturday, after someone shouted out “Waggle Boy” during Garcia’s backswing, he pointed to the crowd and challenged the heckler to “be brave” and say it again. It was neither the first, nor the last time he had exacerbated these showdowns with fans. Garcia wilted in the final round and the showdown with Woods turned out to be something much less. Garcia finished fourth, and though it marked the first of five top-10 finishes he’s had at the U.S. Open, it formed a bad second impression that Garcia had trouble altering, especially in the U.S., over the next decade. Time changes things. Winning does, too. “I felt, and I’ve always said that I felt, like everywhere in the world, and here in the U.S., the fans have always treated me amazingly well,” Garcia said. He was, indeed, the fan favorite as he walked around Augusta National two months ago, dueling with Justin Rose over the final day and eventually coming out on top in a playoff. Once portrayed as the boy who would not become a man, either in golf or in life, Garcia is, at 37, all grown up — handling the pressure better, on the verge of getting married and, yes, now a major champion. Rose, who already had his major, the 2013 U.S. Open, conceded on the day he finished second that if he had to lose, best it be to someone like Garcia, a friend and Ryder Cup teammate for years. He echoed that thought Tuesday. “You think of Sergio Garcia going through his career without a major championship, it would’ve been kind of sad,” Rose said. These days, it’s mostly smiles. Asked if he had two words to describe his strategy for this week, where Erin Hills is expected to play every bit as long and brutal as advertised, Garcia said: “patience” and “commitment.” Pressed to explain the second part, Garcia said, “it’s just a matter of believing.” Much easier for him to do so now, especially with that green jacket hanging back at home.

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