Cantlay, rookie Hodges share lead in The American Express

Patrick Cantlay shot a 10-under 62 in perfect weather and turf conditions Thursday at La Quinta Country Club for a share of the first-round lead with rookie Lee Hodges in The American Express.

Cantlay played the first seven holes in 7 under, making an eagle on the par-5 sixth and five birdies. The FedEx Cup champion added birdies on Nos. 11-13, two of them par 5s, and closed with five straight pars.

“I got off to a roll at the start and kind of made a bunch of putts and then I kind of lagged on the way coming in,” Cantlay said. “But I was happy with everything. I thought I did everything well and it’s a golf course I really like. It’s in perfect shape and so, if you get the ball rolling on line, it should go in.”

Cantlay won the BMW Championship and Tour Championship in his final two starts last year and opened this year with a fourth-place finish two weeks ago in Hawaii at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Last year in the desert, the 29-year-old former UCLA player closed with a Stadium Course-record 61 to finish a shot behind winner Si Woo Kim.

“I grew up a couple hours away, so there are a bunch of friendly faces in the crowd and so it’s really fun,” Cantlay said. “It’s the best part of what I do is when you get on a roll like that and you’re making a bunch of birdies.”

Hodges made a memorable debut in the event. The former Alabama star played the back nine at La Quinta in 7-under 29, eagling the par-5 fifth and making five birdies.

“It’s one of my favorite golf courses I’ve ever played, to be honest,” Hodges said. “I played it I guess three times now and it’s spectacular. It’s like hitting off of mats half the time. It’s just in perfect shape. You get rewarded for good shots out here, which I like that. Good golf gets rewarded.”

Cameron Young and K.H. Lee were tied for third at 64. Young played at La Quinta, and Lee on the Stadium Course.

Brandt Snedeker was at 65 with Joseph Bramlett, Greyson Sigg, Sam Ryder, Danny Lee, Tom Hoge, Wyndham Clark and Seamus Power. Snedeker and Clark played at La Quinta, Bramlett and Ryder at the Stadium Course, and Lee, Hoge, Power and Sigg at the Nicklaus Tournament Course.

The players who opened at La Quinta will play the Nicklaus Tournament Course on Friday and the adjacent Stadium Course on the weekend, with strong wind expected Saturday.

Top-ranked Jon Rahm and Graeme McDowell were in the group at 66, both playing at La Quinta.

“I liked the score and the weather,” Rahm said. “It’s always a very enjoyable walk out here. La Quinta Country Club it’s a great golf course. It’s always in pristine shape, one of the best we play all year shape-wise.”

McDowell played the event only once before, missing the cut in 2003.

“I think my caddie and I are both looking at each other wondering why it’s taken us so long to get here,” McDowell said. “Obviously, the weather is perfect and these golf courses are so well presented.”

Harry Higgs had a hole-in-one on the par-3 15th at La Quinta in a 66. He used a 5-iron on the 199-yard hole.

Tournament host Phil Mickelson was tied for last in the 156-player field after a 78 at La Quinta. He made a quintuple-bogey 9 on the par-4 eighth after hitting two drives out of bounds right.

Gaby Lopez opens new LPGA season with 67 for 1-shot lead

Gaby Lopez of Mexico began a new year and her seventh LPGA Tour season with a simple, and potentially prophetic, Instagram post: “Surprise me, 2022,” she wrote.

Lopez jumped out to the lead Thursday in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, piecing together what she considered a near-perfect opening round to the new season. She made six birdies in a 5-under 67 at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club.

Lopez led by one shot over a foursome of players at 68 that included three major champions: world No. 1 Nelly Korda, who won her first major last year in the KPMG Women's PGA; Danielle Kang, the 2017 Women’s PGA champion; and U.S. Open champion Yuka Saso, who bogeyed her final hole.

Also at 68 was Ryann O’Toole, a 34-year-old American who won for the first time last summer.

Lopez is a two-time winner on the LPGA, her last being a triumph at the 2020 Tournament of Champions across town, when she outlasted Nasa Hataoka in a seven-hole playoff at Tranquilo Golf Club. This week features a limited field of 29 LPGA tournament winners from the last three seasons competing next to 50 celebrities.

Looking back, Lopez said she enjoyed carrying the crown as “champion of champions.” Apparently, she enjoyed it enough to jump right back in the mix.

For Lopez, her solid play at Lake Nona was a continuation of a hot finish to 2021, when she recorded top-10 performances in three of her final four starts.

Lopez said she enjoys competing in the pro-am format of this event, as she is able to switch off her brain from constantly thinking about golf. Starting on Lake Nona’s back nine, she enjoyed her walk alongside former NFL standout Marcus Allen and former MLB slugger Joe Carter, taking full advantage by asking them how they approached their respective sports from a mental standpoint.

“I’m comfortable out there, being able to talk just different topics other than golf and what you did in the holidays,” she said. “But being able to talk about mentality and psychology out there, I mean with the biggest superstars in each event out there, it’s pretty amazing. I really take advantage of that.”

Nelly Korda, who won the Gainbridge LPGA at Lake Nona in February, got off to a poor start, making bogeys at two of her first four holes, but soon showed the form that lifted her to four LPGA victories a year ago, including her first major, as well as an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.

She birdied three consecutive holes starting at the short, par-4 fifth, and moved to 4 under for her round when she hit hybrid from 222 yards to 4 feet at the 522-yard 11th to set up an eagle.

After accomplishing so much last season, does she see any openings to improve any specific areas of her game?

“Every part of my game,” Korda said. “I mean, mental aspect, I think even the physical aspect of it. Every part of the game can get better, always. The game of golf is constantly moving forward, and you kind of have to move with it.”

Jessica Korda, Nelly’s older sister, opened defense of her Tournament of Champions title with a solid round of 69, playing 17 bogey-free holes before finishing with a bogey at the difficult, 398-yard closing hole.

Michelle Wie West, competing for the first time since the Women's PGA last summer, opened with a round of 1-under 71. She made five birdies on her day, including a three-birdie run that started at the par-5 11th.

She finished in midafternoon. Afterward, would she follow her old routine and head right to the practice tee?

“I’m going straight to bed,” Wie West, 32 and the mother of an 18-month-old daughter, said with a smile.

Annika Sorenstam, a World Golf Hall of Famer who is competing on her home course, made 33 points in the Modified Stableford points format to lead the tournament’s celebrity division. Former MLB pitchers Mark Mulder (a former champion) and Derek Lowe, former NHL player Jeremy Roenick and military veteran Chad Pfeifer, who competes on a prosthetic leg, each finished with 32 points.