Is Augusta women’s event just a PR stunt?

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Notes and observations from Thursday’s first round of the Wyndham Championship, where Matt Every shot a career-best, 9-under 61 to lead after the morning wave of the first round. North Carolina native Webb Simpson headed up a group of five players at 63, while 53-year-old University of North Carolina alumnus Davis Love III was among those at 64. For more coverage from Sedgefield Country Club, click here for the Daily Wrap-up. LOVE STILL A WYNDHAM WIZARD Davis Love III won the 2015 Wyndham Championship, becoming the third-oldest TOUR winner at 51 years, four months, 10 days of age, but he never got a chance to defend his title. That’s because the 21-time winner, who will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in September, was recovering from hip surgery at last year’s Wyndham. Now 53 and bidding to become the oldest winner ever on TOUR—Sam Snead was 52 when he won for the eighth time in Greensboro in 1965—Love hit all 18 greens in regulation on the way to an opening-round 64 on Thursday. “I like old style golf courses, traditional architecture,â€� Love said of Sedgefield C.C., a 1925 Donald Ross design. “This is certainly one of the best on TOUR. This one and Greenbrier are two of my favorite courses now on TOUR, and it’s not a bomber’s golf course. It’s one where you have to think your way around it, put in the right positions.â€� Love has three wins in Greensboro, and this week marks the 25th anniversary of his first, at nearby Forest Oaks. He’s won the PGA Championship and THE PLAYERS Championship, twice. He has played vital roles in Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup victories, and now his son Dru, who shot a 3-under 67 at Sedgefield on Thursday, sometimes plays in the same tournaments. But DL3, 209th in the FedExCup, just keeps on going through a torn labrum in his hip, through a broken collarbone (snowboarding) last winter. He played with Webb Simpson and Ryan Moore on Thursday, which couldn’t have been a better group, what with Simpson also getting hot, and Moore reminding Love that he’d gone low and won last time they played together here, in 2015. “I’d like to keep playing with him for a while,â€� Love said. SIMPSON’S CAREER REVIVAL CONTINUES Webb Simpson was another familiar face in the spotlight Thursday, what with Simpson having been born in Raleigh and currently residing in Charlotte, North Carolina. He also won the 2011 Wyndham, and named his third child Wyndham, for good measure. (No, the other three aren’t named Deutsche Bank Championship, Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, and U.S. Open.) Alas, it’s been a lean couple of years since Simpson’s fourth and most recent victory, at the 2014 Shriners Hospitals. Although he made the FedExCup playoffs the last two years, he didn’t win, and slogged through self-doubt. Now, though, Simpson, 32, is starting to look like his old self. Simpson lost a playoff to Hideki Matsuyama at the Waste Management Phoenix Open earlier this season, and is 37th in the FedExCup. On Thursday, he started on 10 and scorched the back nine with a 7-under 28; made two bogeys on the front; and ultimately signed for a 63. “I got a little excited thinking about—I’m not that far off from 59,â€� Simpson said. “But on the cart ride to the first tee I tried to kind of put it aside and get that ball in the fairway. Yeah, you don’t have many opportunities out here to do it. Today was certainly one of them.â€� One of many who had to revise his tactics on the green with the anchoring ban, Simpson took a tidy 25 putts Thursday after hitting nine of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation. He hasn’t missed a cut since the Wells Fargo Championship in May, and says he’s playing even better than he did during his near miss in Phoenix earlier this year. “I feel like I’ve been playing better for a longer period of time,â€� he said. “The game is more consistent.â€� He called his first nine holes, “the best start I’ve ever had to a tournament.â€� Another three days like this and he could be setting himself up to match his best year, too—at least in the FedExCup. He won twice and finished second in the season-long points race in 2011. “We’re obviously close to where I grew up,â€� Simpson said. (Raleigh is just over an hour from Greensboro, and Simpson attended nearby Wake Forest.) “I grew up playing courses similar to this that aren’t too long, hit different clubs off the tee, some doglegs. So, there’s a comfort here that I feel like I don’t have at a lot of places. I’ve always loved playing close to home.â€�

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