Jeff Quinney, who is playing in just his 11th tournament of the year, fired a seven-under par 63 to grab a share of the lead after Thursday’s first round of the Wyndham Championship.
The 32-year-old Quinney is tied with fellow American Tom Gainey after the opening round of the final tournament before the start of the USPGA Tour’s playoffs.
The top 125 players in FedEx Cup points standings are eligible for the playoffs.
Quinney currently sits in 215th place and needs a win in Greensboro to get into the post-season.
Quinney, who is chasing his first PGA Tour win, rolled in eight birdies, including five in a row early in his round.
Gainey had five birdies and an eagle in equaling his career-best round. Australia’s Stuart Appleby is alone in third after shooting a seven-under 64.
South African Ernie Els, England’s Paul Casey, Fiji’s Vijay Singh and Carl Pettersson of Sweden are part of a group of 10 players tied at 65.
Quinney started and finished strong as his approach shot on his final hole of the day landed just three feet from the cup for a birdie. Starting on the back nine, he birdied four straight holes beginning with No. 12, but gave one shot back with a bogey on the 18th.
Gainey had four birdies and an eagle on his front nine. One of his biggest problems of the day came on No. 15 when he landed in the water off the tee, but he still managed to par the hole.
Els, who sits at No. 126 in the standings, needs a strong showing this week as he is on the edge of making the playoffs.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
Starting with three fights in the first nine seconds and ending with a celebration and a spot in the 4 Nations Face-Off final, the US on Saturday delivered exactly what Matthew Tkachuk hoped for by beating Canada. “We needed to send a message,” Tkachuk said. “The message we wanted to send is ‘It’s our time.’” Tkachuk fought Brandon Hagel off the opening faceoff, brother Brady tussled with Sam Bennett the next time the puck dropped, J.T. Miller dropped the gloves with Colton Parayko next and the Americans followed those fisticuffs with a 3-1 victory over their biggest rival. “That was one of the