Ryder Cup: Match recaps, Day 1

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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Shane Lowry bounces back from a career lull and holds steady as rain and high winds all but blow his closest competitors off the course, while Jim Herman refuses to believe he’s washed up at 41. Both register surprise victories at The Open Championship and Barbasol Championship, respectively, to rejuvenate their careers. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Lowry jumped from 68th to 18th in the FedExCup and got Irish eyes smiling, while former club pro Herman reasserted his PGA TOUR status after what had been a shaky season and a dispiriting last few years. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Lowry has known rough weather The last time he was in this situation, staked to a four-shot lead with one round to go in a major championship, Shane Lowry shot a final-round 76 to finish T2 at the 2016 U.S. Open. In his last Open Championship start, in 2018, Lowry had missed the cut and cried in his car. And yet, a caddie change gave him a new lease on life, and he began to finally see results with a victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in January. Despite an opening-round 75, he finished T8 at the PGA Championship at Bethpage. He finished T2 at the RBC Canadian Open. Finally, and just in the nick of time as the Open returned to Ireland for the first time in 68 years, Ireland’s Lowry put it all together at Royal Portrush. He avoided another bad start (78 on the way to a MC at the Masters, 75 en route to a T28 at the U.S. Open) and opened up another four-shot lead with rounds of 67-67-63 at Portrush, breaking the 54-hole Open Championship scoring record in the process. This time, he held steady on Sunday, his 72 good enough for a six-shot win over Tommy Fleetwood (74).   “Golf is a weird sport, and you never know what’s around the corner,” Lowry said. For more on Lowry’s career-changing win, click here.  2. This was a popular victory It may take a while for Lowry to make his way to this week’s World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, as he is likely still working his way through the receiving line. The process began just off the 18th green at the Dunluce Links, with his caddie, parents, brother, wife, 2-year-old daughter and, finally, a long line of fellow players that included Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Brooks Koepka (among others). But nowhere did this victory resonate louder than the place where Lowry learned the game, Esker Hills Golf Club. Click here to join the party. 3. Sunday was brutal J.B. Holmes shot 87 to fall 64 places down the leaderboard and into a T67 finish, but he wasn’t alone. Justin Rose (79) fell 16 spots to finish T20. Dylan Frittelli and Andrew Putnam each began the day at T12 (6 under), only to each shoot 78 to finish 1 over. The conditions were so horrendous that staying within shouting distance of par, like Lowry (1-over 72), qualified as a huge victory. And the under-par scores were so rare they looked like a misprint. The most outrageous of these was Francesco Molinari’s 5-under 66, which shot him up the board 43 spots and earned him a T11 finish. Molinari and Bernd Wiesberger (70) shot the only bogey-free final rounds, fewest of the week. For more on the struggles of the contenders, click here.  4. It meant the world to some You almost can’t overstate how much it meant for Royal Portrush to host The Open. “It hit me like a ton of bricks,â€� said Rory McIlroy, who was so overwhelmed to be playing so close to his boyhood home that he hit his opening tee shot out of bounds and shot 79. His wild second-round 65 was almost good enough to see him through to the weekend rounds, as he missed the cut by one and was on the verge of tears afterward. Darren Clarke, a Royal Portrush member who hit the opening tee shot, reported feeling more emotional than he expected, as did Graeme McDowell. Amid such heartfelt emotion, it was more than appropriate the tournament was won by one of their own, Lowry. For more on what this meant for Ireland and Irish golfers, click here.  5. Herman’s win was a shocker Sure, he’d won the 2016 Houston Open, but Jim Herman had made only three cuts in 19 starts this season. In one of those three, he’d missed the 54-hole cut. He hadn’t had a top-10 finish in over two years. Then the 41-year-old from Cincinnati, Ohio, went out and won the Barbasol Championship with a tournament-record, 26-under 262. “In golf, you don’t know what to expect,” Herman said. You can say that again. For more on Herman’s victory, click here. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Lowry’s dominance (by six shots) represented the biggest margin of victory at The Open since Louis Oosthuizen won by seven at St. Andrews in 2010. Of the other major victories by six or more shots since 2000, Tiger Woods’ 15-shot romp at the 2000 U.S. Open remains the gold standard. Woods (2000 Open Championship), Rory McIlroy (2011 U.S. Open, 2012 PGA Championship) and Martin Kaymer (2014 U.S. Open) all registered eight-shot wins. 2. The winner not only led the field in birdies, his 23 were five more than the next best player. Lowry’s 54-hole total of 197 set The Open Championship record and tied Ernie Els (1995 Open Championship) for the second-lowest opening 54 holes in a major. David Toms still holds the record of 196, set at the 2001 PGA Championship. 3. Runner-up Tommy Fleetwood had made just two bogeys through 54 holes, the fewest in the field, but made four in the final round for a 3-over 74 and his second runner-up finish in 18 major starts. He also finished second at the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. 4. Brooks Koepka (74, T4) became just the fifth player to finish in the top five in all four majors (Jordan Spieth – 2015, Rickie Fowler – 2014, Tiger Woods – 2000 & 2005, Jack Nicklaus – 1971 & 1973) and claimed the top spot in the FedExCup standings for the first time. 5. Jim Herman led the field in scrambling (8 of 9) at the Barbasol, and collected his second TOUR title in his 175th TOUR start. He registered his first top-10 finish since the 2017 Valspar Championship (T3) and moved up 98 spots to 134th in the FedExCup. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. There was a change at the top after the Open Championship and Barbasol Championship. With his T4 finish at the Open, Brooks Koepka inched past Matt Kuchar into the No. 1 spot. Other big changes in the Top 10: Rickie Fowler, with his T6 at the Open, moved up a spot to No. 9, and Jon Rahm (T11 at the Open) moved up to No. 10.

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The PGA TOUR’s Return to Golf continues Thursday in Round 1 of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands. The star-studded field features players such as Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action. Round 1 leaderboard Round 1 tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday 6:45 a.m.-6 p.m. ET (featured groups), Saturday-Sunday 8 a.m.-3 p.m. ET (featured groups). Saturday-Sunday 3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET (featured holes). Radio: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio). FEATURED GROUPS Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson Thursday: 7:35 a.m. ET (No. 10); Friday: 12:50 a.m. ET (No. 1) Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas Thursday: 12:50 p.m. ET (No. 1); Friday: 7:35 a.m. ET (No. 10) Jon Rahm, Chez Reavie, Webb Simpson Thursday: 7:25 a.m. ET (No. 10); Friday: 12:40 p.m. ET (No. 1) Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth Thursday: 12:40 p.m. ET (No. 1); Friday: 7:25 a.m. (No. 10) MUST READS Power Rankings Expert Picks The First Look Brooks Koepka trending nicely Chase Koepka Monday qualifies

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