125 One-liners: A look at every FedExCup Playoffs participant

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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TORONTO — Tony Finau birdied the final hole Saturday for an 8-under 62 and a share of the RBC Canadian Open lead with defending champion Rory McIlroy. “I didn’t finish the way I wanted to yesterday and I think all it did was kind of light a fire in my belly to get after it today,” Finau said. “That’s pretty much what I did. I made some birdies and I just played really clean golf. ” McIlroy had a 65 to match Finau at 11-under 199 at St. George’s Golf and Country Club. “I’m just happy to give myself a chance, be in the final group,” McIlroy said. “Once I saw, I think Tony had got to 10 or maybe 11, I think I was on like 8 or 9 at the time. I just said to myself, `Let’s just try to get yourself in the final group.’” McIlroy had to wait three years to defend his 2019 title because of the COVID-19 pandemic that canceled golf’s fourth-oldest championship the last two years. “I need to set myself a number and be super aggressive,” McIlroy said. “I know I’m going to have to make some birdies out there to win this thing tomorrow.” Finau had the best round of the week, eagling the par-5 ninth in a front-nine 29 and making four birdies and a bogey on the final nine. He won the FedExCup Playoffs opener last season at Liberty National for his second PGA TOUR victory. “I knew I was playing well, but at any given moment on this golf course you can make a number,” Finau said. “So, there’s no reason to get ahead of myself. I just tried to stay in the moment as much as I could and put together a nice round all the way to the end.” PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas (63), Colonial winner Sam Burns (65), Wyndham Clark (68) and Alex Smalley (67) were 9 under. Thomas eagled the par-5 15th. “It was very — it was easy,” Thomas said. “I mean I just, I played really solid. I didn’t do anything great. I just didn’t do anything bad. … I took advantage of some of the opportunities when I had them there in kind of the middle of the course and just stayed patient and waited for my run.” Clark led after each of the first two rounds. “I got off to a little bit of a slow start.” Clark said. “I was nervous, a lot of people out here, hadn’t been in contention in a little while. But then I calmed down and I really felt good about my game.” Nick Taylor was the top Canadian at 5 under after a 67.

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