Kaymer ditches distractions, tied for lead at the Memorial

HAYWARD, Calif. — Stephen Curry missed the cut Friday night against professional golfers on the Web.com Tour. But not before leaving some of golf’s best players impressed that a two-time MVP for the Golden State Warriors could enter their arena and look respectable. Curry opened with a 4-over 74 on the TPC Stonebrae and needed a career round to stay for the weekend. He shot a 74 again on Friday to finish tied for 148th. He missed the cut by 11 shots. Curry bogeyed two of the first three holes on Friday and shot a 39 on his opening nine. He made five straight pars and birdied No. 14 before playing the final three holes at 1-over with two bogeys and a birdie on 17. No matter. “That was awesome what he did yesterday,” said 2015 FedExCup winner Jordan on Friday at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. “I think he certainly beat most everybody’s expectations, but I don’t think that really surprised him. It was pretty cool — really cool — to see. You see him fist-pumping out there, and just him talking about how nervous he was when he heard his name called, it just makes us feel a little better when sometimes some of the stuff he does looks like a robot.” Stanford alum Andrew Yun shot a 62 on Friday and finished two rounds at 8-under 127. Fellow American Brandon Harkins is two shots back after rounds of 64 and 65. One of the highlights for Curry in the opening round was a long birdie putt and telling his caddie to “Go get that” from the cup. That was the famous line Spieth said to his caddie at Royal Birkdale two weeks ago after a 50-foot eagle putt to take the lead. “To be honest, I think it’s pretty special for a two-time MVP to be able to shoot 74 at a pro event and beat other pros,” former PGA champion Jason Day said. No one expected very much out of Curry, who last year played in the pro-am at the PGA TOUR’s season opener in Napa, California. The field included players who have competed in majors this year, and seven players who have won on the PGA TOUR. The question in some corners was how high his score would be. “I was asked if I thought he was going to break 80, and that’s the hand grenade question,” Paul Casey said. “But 4 over is really good. It’s a lot of pressure, and he exceeded my expectations.” Zach Johnson, a two-time major champion, said he has a friend who knows Curry and said he was a good player. The score in the first round was enough to make a believer out of Johnson. “Clearly, he is,” Johnson said. “I don’t know that golf course. Someone said they shoot pretty low there often, but it doesn’t matter. You’ve still got to put the ball in the hole. First round as an amateur in a professional tournament? That’s pretty good.” Johnson vaguely recalled the time Jerry Rice, the Hall of Fame receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, played in the tournament. Rice shot 90. “He’s a good athlete. They’re both good athletes,” Johnson said. “I’m not going to be playing for the 49ers.”

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Tiger Woods is chasing a historic milestone. The home favorite isn’t far behind him. Woods holds the solo lead at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP after shooting 64-64 in the first two rounds. A victory would be his 82nd on the PGA TOUR, tying Sam Snead’s record. RELATED: RELATED: Leaderboard | Tiger holds two-shot lead | Monday finish determined for ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama is in third place, just four shots behind Woods. Matsuyama followed his first-round 65 with a 67 on Saturday. He leads the field in greens in regulation, missing just five in two rounds. Matsuyama has won eight times on the Japan Tour, but this is the first official PGA TOUR event in his home country. He started his round by making a 2 on the 10th hole, a par-4 that was shortened to 150 yards because of flooding in the fairway. He made two birdies and one bogey the rest of the way. “I got off to a good start with a fine putt which got me into a good rhythm,� Matsuyama said. “The second half was a grind, but I didn’t play badly, so tomorrow I want to continue playing the way I have been playing.� Matsuyama is coming off a third-place finish at last week’s THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, his second third-place showing in his last five starts. He’s 23rd in this season’s FedExCup standings.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – If Dustin Johnson started at No. 1; Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth want to get back to No. 1; and Jon Rahm, Justin Rose, Justin Thomas and Spieth actually could get to No. 1, then by the law of hypothetical syllogism and the transitive property… Oh, never mind. After copious No. 1 chatter at THE PLAYERS Championship, Thursday’s first round suggested the new No. 1 might end up being the same as the old No. 1. Johnson used a new putter and a new putting method to shoot 66 and seize the early lead with Sweden’s Alex Noren and 2012 U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson. “It was definitely a big deal to get there,â€� Johnson said of the top ranking, which he could lose to Thomas (73), Spieth (75), Rose (68) or Rahm this week. “And it’s a big deal to stay there, I think. Yeah, I mean, I like being No. 1, so I want to stay there.â€� Defending champion Si Woo Kim and late addition Keith Mitchell, who got into the field when Paul Casey withdrew, were part of a foursome at 67, one shot back after the morning wave. Johnson, though, was the talk of the morning. His 66 was his best by two at TPC Sawgrass, where he was averaging 72.43 coming into this week. He hit nine of 14 fairways, 17 of 18 greens in regulation, and made six birdies and no bogeys. It’s rare to categorize a world No. 1 as a surprise leader, but Johnson has looked wobbly here since he shot a second-round 80 to miss the cut in his first PLAYERS in 2008. His recent results on TOUR weren’t exactly encouraging, either. He looked lost in going 0-3 at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, and was never really in contention at the Masters (T10) and RBC Heritage (T16). The culprit, he said, was his inability to make anything on the greens, and indeed the fact that he holed over 111 feet of putts Thursday was a happy surprise. Using a new TaylorMade putter and the Aimpoint green-reading technique for the first time, he finally capitalized on his ball-striking. “I felt like at Augusta and Hilton Head I was hitting a lot of good putts that were not going in the hole,â€� Johnson said. “I needed to figure out something. I still feel like I read the greens really well. It’s helped with getting a definite spot to putt at, where I want the ball to start. I felt like today we read ’em all really well. There were no surprises.â€� As for all the talk about his tenuous position atop the Official World Golf Ranking, that was another matter. When Rickie Fowler won here in 2015, much of the buzz was around a player poll that tagged him as overrated. Fowler obliterated all that with his clubs. Did all the No. 1 chatter get to Johnson? Was his opening statement here a reminder not to write him off too soon? He said no. “I don’t care what people talk about,â€� Johnson said. “It doesn’t bother me. I want to play good golf.â€� Rory McIlroy (71) has been to No. 1, and said he’s been impressed with how long Johnson has held onto the top spot. “I think he’s done a great job because I feel it’s harder to stay there than it is to get there,â€� said McIlroy, who lost the No. 1 spot to Spieth in the summer of 2015. Rose, one of the four who could take over in pole position if everything breaks his way this week, found himself leaderboard-watching Thursday but quickly diverted his attention away from the No. 1 ranking as Johnson piled up the birdies. “I thought I better play well this week to not go miles behind him again,â€� Rose said. Johnson’s coach, Claude Harmon III, with whom Johnson worked at the Floridian last week, said that while Johnson may downplay it, the laconic, 33-year-old South Carolinian had heard the No. 1 speculation concerning himself, Thomas, Rahm, Rose and Spieth. “Absolutely,â€� Harmon said. “There are not a lot of people walking around who have gotten there, and if you’re lucky enough to get a chance to get to No. 1, then you always want to stay there. D.J. is far more competitive than people realize. “It’s certainly something that drives him,â€� Harmon added. “One of the weird things in golf right now is that he’s the No. 1 player in the world, and there are so many other stories right now that he doesn’t really get talked about. Sometimes that works in your favor; you can just do what you do and let your clubs do the talking.â€� So far, so good for Dustin Johnson, whose clubs said it all Thursday.

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