Live leaderboard: Moving day at 3M Open

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PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – After battling nerves early, former NFL quarterback Tony Romo fought back for a respectable opening-round score of 7-over-par 79 at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. Making his second TOUR start in the Dominican Republic, Romo had a tough day off the tee, hitting just 21 percent of his fairways. He missed a few short putts early – and bogeyed three of his first four holes – before getting into a bit of a groove. He lost his tee-shot on the tough par-4 8th, leading to a triple-bogey 7. However, on the tougher back nine at Corales, Romo was just 1-over. He said after his round there were some “signs of life.â€� “I got comfortable and the last 10 holes or so (and) hit some good shots. Just got to keep getting comfortable and playing golf in these types of situations and it starts to get easier,â€� he said. Romo’s coach, Andy Traynor, was out following his pupil all 18 holes. He said Romo could out-work anyone, and was playing very well coming into the week. But Romo admitted after his round that tournament golf is just a different animal. “I think a lot of this is just tournament golf in general. We work on stuff and then all of a sudden you have a different wind direction, it’s a little down and it’s a front flag and it’s like it needs to be flighted a different way than you normally would, stuff like that,â€� said Romo. “It’s just a little harder than what you see.â€� Romo played with Texan Kramer Hickok (1-under 71), who he’s played with a few times at home, and Denny McCarthy (3-under-par 69), who he played with in 2018. McCarthy – who said he had a combination of confidence and knowing he played well here a year ago (he finished T-7) as contributing factors to his hot start – said Romo didn’t have his best day, but it was evident that he eased into the round. “He played great after the 8th hole. He even mentioned it, he was a little tentative and nervous but played carefree coming in,â€� said McCarthy. “I got to know him pretty well last year and we had some nice conversations out there. It was a comfortable pairing for all of us.â€� Romo said he has improved a lot in certain areas of his game since 2018 and he’s eager for another crack at Corales on Friday. “I feel like I always want to be improving, but the score doesn’t always show that,â€� he said. “But for me the progression is going well and just have to stay at it. I think I’m going to play better tomorrow.â€�

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Sam Burns bundled up to fight near-freezing temperatures at the start and closed out his second round with a 75-foot eagle putt and an 18-foot par to share the lead with Tom Hoge after 36 holes in the rain-delayed Players Championship. Hoge has been atop the leaderboard for four days at the TPC Sawgrass. He played golf on only two of those days. The Pebble Beach winner opened with a 66 on Thursday and because of rain delays, didn’t start his second round until Sunday morning. The temperature was 35 degrees Fahrenheit (1.6 degrees Celsius) in the morning with a light wind. Hoge closed with a pair of tough pars for a 71. Burns made his eagle on the par-5 16th and his big par on the final hole for a 69. They were at 7-under 137. Erik van Rooyen, the South African who played his college golf at Minnesota, holed a wedge for eagle on the par-5 ninth hole to close out his 67 and leave him one shot behind with Harold Varner III, who had a 69. This week is all about the weather. Four inches of rain that saturated the Stadium Course led to five hours of delays on Thursday, four hours of play on Friday and a late start — noon on Saturday — to get the course ready. Sunday at TPC Sawgrass typically decides the winner. This time it was all about who got to keep playing into Monday evening. Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler can count themselves among the fortunate. They finished the second round Saturday at 2-over 146 and appeared certain to miss the cut with the final two groups finishing up the round. And then Scott Piercy, who appeared safe at 2-under par, hit two shots into the water on the island-green 17th and made a quadruple-bogey 7 that knocked him to 2 over. Piercy bogeyed the 18th and wound up missing the cut. Others didn’t get off so easy. The strongest field of the year won’t include three of the top 10 players in the world — Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. One thing made clear at the halfway point was who lucked out on the tee times. The top 15 players going into the third round all had the early-late side of the tee times, meaning they faced mostly calm and rain-soaked conditions on Thursday and avoided the ferocious wind that wreaked havoc on the Stadium Course on Saturday. Burns was watching most of Saturday on TV. “I just felt bad for the guys that had to play,” he said. “You never wish that upon your opponents. It’s unfortunate. Over your career, you have good waves and bad waves. … There’s only so much you can control out there, and weather is not one of them.” Burns did his part after a sloppy start to his back nine, including what he described as one of the worst shots he ever hit, a 7-iron that went 126 yards into a bunker on the 10th hole. The bonus was his eagle putt on the 16th after a shot that avoided water by some 5 yards and left him a putt from the front of the green to a back pin. Kevin Kisner was among those on the wrong side of the draw, and his only wish was that players on Sunday morning suffered in the cold weather. That wish was granted. Hoge found himself layering up with three sweaters and even that wasn’t enough. But he played good golf, too, playing bogey-free for the final 17 holes. Even with the realization that it was Sunday afternoon, the tournament was more like a Friday afternoon. There’s still a long way to go, and 32 players were within five shots of the lead. That included Jon Rahm, who played Sunday morning and shot 72, and Dustin Johnson, who had a 73 on Saturday that felt much better. The average score was 74.46, about a full stroke lower than it was at the end of Saturday to reflect how much better the conditions were, even in the cold. Rahm hit one shot on Saturday when the round was stopped by darkness. It turned out to be a decent break because he returned for the next 71 shots without as much wind. “I was able to play a rather mediocre round of golf and post a decent score and I’m still in the hunt for this tournament,” he said. “So I consider myself lucky.”

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